GCHQ Cryptoy App | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The UK's Signals Intelligence and Cyber Security agency GCHQ has launched its first ever puzzle book, challenging researchers and cryptographers to crack codes for charity. Dubbed " The GCHQ Puzzle Book ," the book features more than 140 pages of codes, puzzles, and challenges created by expert code breakers at the British intelligence agency. Ranging from easy to complex, the GCHQ challenges include ciphers and tests of numeracy and literacy, substitution codes, along with picture and music challenges. Writing in the GCHQ Puzzle Book's introduction, here's what GCHQ Director, Robert Hannigan says: "For nearly one hundred years, the men and women of GCHQ, both civilian and military, have been solving problems. They have done so in pursuit of our mission to keep the United Kingdom safe. GCHQ has a proud history of valuing and supporting individuals who think differently; without them, we would be of little value to the country. Not all are geniuses ...

GCHQ has finally released the solution to their head spinning Xmas Puzzle , after all, the participants failed to reach the final answer. GCHQ had released a crypto puzzle, dubbed Xmas Puzzle , on 9th December in the form of a Christmas Card that went viral online soon after its release. Nearly 600,000 people shot a "Go" for the challenge since early December, but only 30,000 had made it reach the final stage. The puzzle got popped up with a grid-shading Nonogram that resulted in the formation of a QR Code containing a hint to unlock the next level challenges. Xmas Puzzle prolonged to various topics like Web Link Maze, Word & Numeric Puzzle, Graph Theory and other Cipher Dilemmas. Some of the questions also intrigued on entertaining topics like Lord of the Rings, Ducks, Chess, French, and Semaphores. Who Created Crypto 'Xmas Puzzle'? This brainstorming puzzle was created by a small team of GCHQ Cryptographers under the GCHQ director Robert Han...

As SaaS providers race to integrate AI into their product offerings to stay competitive and relevant, a new challenge has emerged in the world of AI: shadow AI.  Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots at organizations. For example, a developer using ChatGPT to assist with writing code, a salesperson downloading an AI-powered meeting transcription tool, or a customer support person using Agentic AI to automate tasks – without going through the proper channels. When these tools are used without IT or the Security team's knowledge, they often lack sufficient security controls, putting company data at risk. Shadow AI Detection Challenges Because shadow AI tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents they are even more tricky to discover than traditional shadow IT. While traditional shadow apps can be identified through network monitoring methodologies that scan for unauthorized connections based on...

British government surveillance agency GCHQ – counterpart of NSA – has fired-up another debate over the Internet by launching Android application to encourage teenagers to tackle emerging cybersecurity threats. The newly launched Android app , dubbed " Cryptoy ", was developed by STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) students on an industrial year placement at GCHQ. The Cryptoy app was highly appreciated and liked by GCHQ at the Cheltenham Science Festival that they made it available to download today. The app is designed mainly to tempt youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 into trying their hand in cryptography and code-breaking, but can be used by anyone interested in cryptography. According to GCHQ , Cryptoy app will help users to understand basic encryption methods, teach the codes of the past, and create their own encrypted messages. The app allows users to share these encoded messages by using four code-breaking techniques – Shift, Subs...