Its annual Christmas cards have become a festive highlight for many adults who try to take on the fiendishly difficult puzzles, but this year GCHQ is inviting children to get involved in the code cracking.
The national intelligence and security agency, which employs some of the best problem-solving minds in the country, issues a Christmas card each December with a set of puzzles for its employees and the public to decipher.
In 2016, the card’s tasks were so hard that it took eight GCHQ cryptographers two months to compile. Only three people got even close to completing it out of 600,000 who attempted the challenge. The final three received a paperweight from the intelligence service for their efforts.
However, this year, the director of the government’s code-breaking centre has issued a card with seven puzzles designed for 11 to 18-year-olds.
The aim is to persuade more young people to take an interest in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and consider future careers in the intelligence services.
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The agency, which is still best known for its work cracking Enigma — the coding machine used by Nazi Germany to encrypt military messages during the Second World War — has to compete with tech giants, which can offer much higher salaries, to recruit the sharpest young minds into its work.
Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, said: “From Enigma to artificial intelligence, GCHQ’s history is full of talented people tackling the country’s most complex challenges. If we’re to help keep the country safe, problem-solving skills and teamwork are absolutely crucial.
“That’s why this year’s Christmas puzzles are aimed at young people. I want to show young people that thinking differently is a gift. It is only with the right mix of minds that they can solve seemingly impossible problems, just like we do at GCHQ.”
In 2018, GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre — which acts as the UK’s technical authority for cyberthreats — helped set up a series of bootcamps for teenage computer hackers who they believed could one day be recruited to defend the country against cyberattacks.
The teenagers were selected by police who believed them to be at a crossroads of either becoming criminals or becoming significant assets to the country’s security. Each puzzle in this year’s Christmas card is aimed at a particular age group from 11 to 18, but once the seven answers are combined, they deliver a secret message.
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GCHQ is encouraging secondary schools and colleges to take part in the challenge, saying it will need young people to “think outside the box and work together to find the festive answer”.
Those aged 13 to 14, for example, are invited to answer the question: “What completes the sequence: GRYFFINDOR, UFFLEPUF, VENCL, ??”
Or 17 to 18-year-olds are invited to work out this: “Solve the code; answer the question; encode the answer: Cwog og cwi 7cwahigcoet: xiexui kent kicziit toticiit lencj gov stf toticiit govcj lehn sni yeppetuj dtezt sg kskj zwsc?”
GCHQ is also encouraging the wider public to take on the puzzles to see if they are smarter than school children.
The challenge is being supported by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, chief executive of Stemettes, which encourages girls and young women to pursue careers in Stem subjects.
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Imafidon, who is also covering for Rachel Riley on Channel 4’s Countdown while the co-host is on maternity leave, said: “No matter your age, Stem skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving are important skills to have.”
“In my work across the Stemettes with partners like GCHQ, we want all kinds of people to have the chance to explore these skills, and for those that enjoy this type of challenge to get an opportunity to further themselves in these areas.”
Questions
1, 11-12 years Clue here: reading initials spells this message’s answer. Simple!
2, 12-13 years Enter your four-letter answers in grid.
1. This is the word you want 2. Noise made by owl 3. US state with capital Des Moines 4. Adult male deer
3, 13-14 yearsWhat completes the sequence: GRYFFINDOR, UFFLEPUF, VENCL, ???
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4, 14-15 years Within the grid are some hidden mines. The numbers show how many mines are in the squares adjacent to each number. Locate the mines to reveal a four-letter word
5, 15-16 years Do Kindly Place Cover On Fresh Green Spring Vegetables is a mnemonic meant to help you remember scientific words. Which word does Kindly help you remember?
6, 16-17 years What six-letter word does the ? represent in this Venn diagram?
7, 17-18 years Solve the code: answer the question; encode the answer: Cwog og cwi 7cw ahigcoet: xiexui kent kicziit toticiit lencj gov stf toticiït govcj lehn sni yeppetuj dtezt sg kskj zwsc?
Answers:
1 The initial letters spell CHRISTMAS. 2 THIS. 3THE. The four Hogwarts houses in alphabetical order, but with 0, 1, 2, 3 letters removed from the start and end of the names: GRYFFINDOR, hUFFLEPUFf, raVENCLaw, slyTHErin. 4 The squares without mines in the 4 areas of the grid form the shapes of the letters of SAF. 5 KINGDOM. The Taxonomic rank mnemonic has the same initials as Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety. 6 UNITED. The letters in the complete circles form the names MANCHESTER, NEWCASTLE and LEEDS. 7 KEEPING. This is a simple substitution code in which each letter has been replaced by a different one. Here is the original message, and answer, alongside the encrypted version: This is the 7th question: people born between nineteen forty six and og cwi 7cw ahigcoet: xiexui kent kicziit toticiit lencj gov stf nineteen sixty four are commonly known as baby what? BOOMERS toticiit govcj lehn sni yeppetuj dtezt sg kskj zwsc? KEEPING
