Reply to: Who wants to become a spy?

[mudskipper]

I like that approach.

The Register had a better headline with Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond. I immediately thought "What would James Bond do here?", and the answer didn't involve working it out himself, but stealing the answer from a heavily guarded vault or coercing it out of someone (cue pretty lady and the chance to use his charm on her).

Well thank you.

[Sysman]

Lateral thinking.
Got to the 'You did it' page without cracking the code.

It's not very exciting.

I like that approach.

The Register had a better headline with Crack GCHQ's code and become the next James Bond. I immediately thought "What would James Bond do here?", and the answer didn't involve working it out himself, but stealing the answer from a heavily guarded vault or coercing it out of someone (cue pretty lady and the chance to use his charm on her).

[doodab]

It's almost worth doing it and then quitting just to get the DV clearance.

I can't imagine they would seriously offer 30k to someone with a family in their 30s or 40s if they were actually good enough.

I'm tempted to have a go but I have way too many skeletons in my closet

[OwlHoot]

The work does actually sound pretty interesting. Shame about the derisory salaries though.

Obviously these are starter jobs, and one has to hope the salary scales rise steeply, or else you'd need rich (and generous) parents or a high-earning partner to even contemplate working there.

[PAH]

Probably takes a while to figure out a good way of locking it from the outside.

They should have put it on a website to see if the public could work it out.

[TimberWolf]

Sums up working in government, even the more 'exotic' departments of MI5/MI6.

Why else would their operatives be amusing themselves by trying to see if they fit in a suitcase?

Probably takes a while to figure out a good way of locking it from the outside.

[PAH]

It's not very exciting.

Sums up working in government, even the more 'exotic' departments of MI5/MI6.

Why else would their operatives be amusing themselves by trying to see if they fit in a suitcase?

[mudskipper]

Lateral thinking.
Got to the 'You did it' page without cracking the code.

It's not very exciting.

[JoJoGabor]

I got thrown out of MI6 years ago for being too tough!

[sasguru]

Crikey, I wondered where sasguru worked!

I know everything about you, bald short-arse.

[PAH]

They pay their code breaking staff 20k yet the outsourced guy who fixes the printers is on 50k just because he has DV.

True. There's more money in supplying them with paperclips (that are from a security approved supplier so need a 1000% markup ) than working for them or any other government department directly.

Especially now the government is cutting back on the staff, and will have to get contractors in to do the work.

[gingerjedi]

If the geniuses that run GCHQ are struggling to solve the puzzle of why they can't attract people with brains it's no wonder they need help with codebreaking. I suspect this is less about recruitment and more about lulling the enemy into a false sense of security.

They pay their code breaking staff 20k yet the outsourced guy who fixes the printers is on 50k just because he has DV.

[doodab]

Looks like pure C to me, can't see any "sugar".

Apparently solving the code takes you to a GCHQ application form for ~£20K roles

If the geniuses that run GCHQ are struggling to solve the puzzle of why they can't attract people with brains it's no wonder they need help with codebreaking. I suspect this is less about recruitment and more about lulling the enemy into a false sense of security.

[OwlHoot]

Looked at it for a bit last night, thought I could get somewhere then lost interest when I realised I would have to type it all out again as it was on an image.

Lazybones - Only took me about 5 minutes to type out.

There are several repeated sequences that occur in both blocks, such as "df 29 cf" (just over half way down, and of course the two lots of "41 41 41 41". Also, there seem far more 88s and 89s than one would expect by chance.

Counting the distances between the 89s and mapping these to A, B, C, ... I ended up with "FKBCLEAIM", which if you squint at it seems to contain a garbled version of "FACEBOOK"; but that might just be coincidence.

[TimberWolf]

Do I get to meet Alotta Fagina and Ivana Humpalot?

Sort of. Their names are Lucy Fagina and Ivana Trumpalot.