Test Your Cryptology Skills with NSA's New Crypto Mobile Game App -- Security Today

Test Your Cryptology Skills with NSA's New Crypto Mobile Game App

Dec 13, 2011

The National Security Agency (NSA) has launched the "NSA CryptoChallenge," a mobile cryptograph game app available free of charge from the Apple App Store. The game is the latest digital communications effort designed to educate young adults on career opportunities with NSA and recruit the best and brightest to support NSA's cybersecurity initiatives.

NSA's CryptoChallenge game challenges today's most intelligent college students and young adults to decode hundreds of puzzles, which test pattern recognition skills through a series of cryptographs under various categories, including famous quotes, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) trivia, pop culture factoids and more. It's "you against the clock" to see how fast you can crack the code. Players can also choose to share their completion time to see how they stack up against other players across the globe, even sharing scores on Facebook and Twitter.

"This is the technology today's college students use most to communicate and make important life decisions, so we have to use these tools to successfully recruit the top-tier technical talent we need to become future leaders of the Agency, " said Kathy Hutson, NSA's director of human resources.

Serious brainiacs are unlikely to get bored by NSA's CryptoChallenge, as players will find that the game includes an advanced level and uses multiple algorithms, so puzzles have a different encryption each time they appear. The game is also expected to be released for Android platforms in the near future.

NSA's CryptoChallenge joins NSA's other high-tech recruitment tool, the NSA Career Links app, which is available through the Apple App Store and Android Market Place. The app delivers real-time information updates directly to the user's mobile device.

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