Some individuals are just different in the way they move through the world. Recently, there was a teenager who managed to crack a code placed on a 50-cent Australian coin. The country’s foreign intelligence cybersecurity agency of the country released the coin. The release was on Thursday- which also marked the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate. Apparently, the agency created only 50,000 such coins for this special occasion. The ASD did marvel at the genius of this kid. For, the four different layers of encryption on this coin were progressively difficult to solve. Also, one would find clues on both ends of the coin.
And yet, according to Rachel Noble- the Director-General- a kid from Tasmania cracked this code. In her speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday, Noble said, “There’s a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45 am; we put up our web form and said, ‘Hey, if you think you’ve got the answers, fill the form. And believe it or not, a boy, 14 years old in Tasmania, was the first person in just over an hour to get all four layers right. Just unbelievable. Can you imagine being his mum? So we’re hoping to meet him soon… to recruit him.”
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14-Year-Old Crack Code For ASD
Although this kid could be someone who is a prodigy and cracks code for fun, the purpose of minting the coin was to celebrate the evolution of code-breaking. Also, Ms. Noble went on to declare that those who knew how to crack codes would find themselves suitably employed at the ASD. “We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they’ll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate.”
Although there is no pot of gold that this child who cracks code would find at the end of the code, Rachel hints at something different. In her speech, she mentioned that those who cracked the code would discover uplifting messages. “Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level.” On Friday, she also stated that there was a completely separate fifth level of encryption that no one had been able to decipher yet.
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