Cicada 3301-"The internet Mystery"

 

There was a message from an anonymous sender stating, "Hello, we are looking for highly intelligent individuals, and thus this test." If they solved the test, they likely had a chance of actually finding out who they were, and this message was signed by the name Cicada 3301.

It all started on 4th Jan 2012 on 4chan..an anonymous English language imageboard website for the age group 18-25. It's a community-based webpage ... I posted an image on a random board and signed the image with 4 digit code i.e. 3301 and challenged the users to uncover a message hidden in this...

As soon as they posted the image many users started discovering what it could be and when they opened this image on Notepad they found a text and a link when deciphered and that link led them to another image...everyone thought this was the end of this puzzle, but when they used an app called outguess..they were able to extract hidden info within the image. This info led them to a subreddit which led them to a book and that book when de coded gave them a ph.no when they called the phone it had a pre-recorded voice message that said that there were 3 prime numbers in the image and 3301 was one of them..find those 3 numbers and multiply them and add ".com" to find the next puzzle piece...

They figured out it was the dimensions of the image were the other two numbers.. and they found the link...

The website consisted of a countdown as well as an image of a cicada, as soon as the counter turned to zero, it updated and posted a list of coordinates of locations that pointed around 14 locations across the globe. When they visited these 14 locations they found a poster with a cicada image and a QR code. The code linked to an image, the image had a riddle and the riddle led to a book, and the book led to a website...here's where the puzzle took a turn .. only a few of the first-come got into the final stage of this riddle and for the rest the msg read..."we want the best, not the followers".

The finalists were warned not to disclose any info about the riddle and here they reached the very end of the puzzle 🧩...

Looks like Cicada found those individuals...

the main question is why this puzzle was created, by whom it was created, and what was the main purpose of the puzzle--no one could give an appropriate answer.

After a year, cicada put up a note about PGP signatures which said it was the valid ones and the images without PGP signatures were not valid..

The second puzzle also started with an image and followed the same pattern turn of events. This time the pre-recorded message named "instar emergence".It was an instrumental music. This led to a Twitter account..and then led to an image that contained runic and then again coordinates..8 coordinates in 4 locations and other groups have been accepted to the final stage of the puzzle. This one did not have any official conclusion.

It's 2014 now. Again the same pattern of events followed...image ->book->link->and so on. This time the puzzle revolved around a book written by Cicada-"Liber Primus".This book was written in runes and they started translating it. They found philosophical ideologies and various ideologies that made them think it was from a cult.

There was one last pre-recorded message named interconnectedness. This book had 74 pages and 19 pages have been successfully translated and people yet strive to uncover the secrets of this book.

Sooo....

Who are these people!?

Some people say it's a government, some say it's a private organisation which had a similar ideology named "privacy is our right" and thus wanted to expand this organisation and thus formed these puzzles...But people started to lose interest and left the organisation...

So are they still active??

WHY "3301" does anyone have any idea? And why the insect "Cicada" or why these puzzles?

Well as far as I know one has a clear answer to these questions...and now many people are eagerly waiting for the cicada to release any more puzzles...if you readers have any ideas! do let us know in the comments.  

There might be one more question...why i covered this mystery...? I did research on this during my college days and found it's something which not everyone knows. And thus this post. Hope you enjoyed reading this!!