[clug] [OT] ASD uses a Commemorative coin to recruit code breakers: 14-yo Tasmanian submits correct answers in 1hr

[steve jenkin]

ICYMI, some geek news

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ASD page, including link to “submit your answers"
	<https://www.asd.gov.au/75th-anniversary/events/2022-09-01-75th-anniversary-commemorative-coin>

Coin Images
	Front: <https://www.asd.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-09/ASD-50c-FRONT-Web-tx.png>
	Back: <https://www.asd.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-09/ASD-50c-BACK-Web-tx.png>

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Australian Signals Directorate 50-cent coin code cracked by Tasmanian 14yo in 'just over an hour'
	<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-02/asd-50-cent-code-cracked-by-14yo-tasmanian-boy/101401978>

The limited-edition commemorative coin was released on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with only 50,000 minted for the occasion.

The ASD said the coin's four different layers of encryption were each progressively harder to solve, and clues could be found on both sides — but ASD director-general Rachel Noble said in a speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday that the 14-year-old managed it in just over an hour.

"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 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said.

"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.

"So we're hoping to meet him soon ... to recruit him.”

Ms Noble said that while there were no classified messages on the coin, those who crack the codes could discover "some wonderful, uplifting messages".

She also revealed on Friday that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet.

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Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

mailto:sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin