# What is this cicada 3301?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-cicada-3301/683105>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 7, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-cicada-3301/683105 "2014-03-07T13:24:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-cicada-3301/683105/1 "2014-03-07T13:24:32Z")

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Yeah, I did look it up on Wikipedia; but the information available was rather vague. Has anyone tried to solve it? Could Cecil solve it in under an hour? Who/what do you think this is a recruitment tool for? Also, if anyone has tried to solve it, is it really as elaborate and difficult as it sounds - does the difficulty lay mainly in the broadness and scope of the references, or the complexity of the cryptography, or both?

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-cicada-3301/683105/2 "2014-03-07T16:38:50Z")

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[Joel Eriksson is one of the few known people to have actually solved it since the first challenge appeared online.](http://www.fastcolabs.com/3025785/meet-the-man-who-solved-the-mysterious-cicada-3301-puzzle) His opinion of who’s behind it is about ¾ down.