In 2012 a shadowy group called Cicada 3301 began posting fiendish online puzzles — ciphers, hidden images, dark-web clues — and nobody ever proved who was behind it.

2012

The challenges spanned continents, weaving together steganography, classical cryptography, and even physical clues reportedly taped to lampposts in cities around the world, apparently to recruit talented codebreakers. Solvers who reached the end described being quietly contacted, but the group's true purpose and identity were never publicly confirmed, and after a final round it simply went silent.