CICADA 3301
4 January 2012, then January 2013 and 2014. Signed puzzles, steganography, physical drops in several countries. PGP key marked 3301. People who pass are told to wait. No employer stands up. Quiet after.
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1. Public Record
Cicada 3301. 4 January 2012, an image appears on a board. A message says the hunt is a test for highly intelligent individuals. Puzzles run through books, music, telephone numbers, images steganographed into later images, physical paper posted in cities across several countries. Each round that holds is signed with a PGP key marked 3301. People who pass are told to wait. January 2013 repeats the pattern. January 2014 again. After that the original key goes quieter. Copycats arrive and are denounced by the same signature.
No employer stands up. No prize is collected on camera. Theories run from a recruiting office to an art project to a joke with too much budget. The physical drops are what stop it being only a board game: paper on lamp posts, QR codes, coordinates. Solvers photograph them and the photographs become the record. The later rounds select fewer people and then stop selecting in public.
Three Januarys. Paper on a post. A silence after.
2. Date of Incident
Public rounds 4 January 2012, January 2013, January 2014. Quieter claims after. Copycats ongoing.
3. Location
Internet first, then physical drops in several countries. No single coordinate that owns it.
4. Official Narrative
No ministry claims the hunt. Official narrative is absence. Police treat posters as posters.
5. Witness Layer
Solvers. Photographers of the posters. The PGP key as a voice. Journalists who arrived late.
6. Recovery Logistics
Posters taken down. Solver write-ups. No office with a plaque. No staff list.
7. Assessment
A hunt file. Keep the three Januarys. Keep the physical paper so it is not only a board. Keep the signature that denounced the copycats. Do not write NSA as proved. Do not write a finished recruitment because someone received a later private message. The test either ended or went indoors. This cabinet cannot tell which.
8. Materials & Remains
First images. PGP signatures. Photographs of posters. Solver timelines.
9. Key Personnel
3301 : The signature.
Solvers : The temporary staff.
10. Aftermath
Copycat hunts. Documentaries. The original key does not come back with a press officer.
11. Current Archive Status
Status: Jan 2012-14. PGP 3301. No claimed employer. Quiet after.
Confidence: High that signed puzzles and physical drops occurred those Januarys. Low that the sponsor is known. Low that the test had a public winner.
Filing note
A January image, a test, a lamp post in a city that was not online, a signature that stayed consistent, two more Januarys, then a room that stopped speaking.
No employer stands up. That is either discipline or the end of the joke. The paper on the post does not say which.