Cicada 3301
[related: Christian Family Research Council] [disambiguation: Cicadas]
Popular Common nickname given to an unnamed mysterious shadow organization known primarily for the shrouded dissemination of cryptographical content. Theories as to the organization’s true identity vary, though many posit a connection to either Freemasonry or the now dormant Legion of Doom/Masters of Deception. However, a number of internet scholars speculate that Cicada 3301 is in fact a branch of the CIA, reminiscent in the spirit of Operation SunDevil or the FBI's COINTELPRO - a covert operation designed to identity and neutralize superior talent in the underground hacking/phreacking community.
Cicada 3301's content has included cryptographic digital puzzles, hacking challenges, and even the posting of serialistic musical dyads of unidentifiable origin. As a rule, Cicada 3301 materials appear on various UseNet channels without preamble, from newly created and untraceable accounts. In 19[redacted] the Christian Family Research Council1 engaged in an extensively and costly analysis of all known Cicada 3301 materials, ultimately concluding that the group was in fact an extension of the occult and, equating the dark web to the physical and mythological underworld, stating:
- "The enigmatic Cicada 3301 appears to be drawing participants inexorably into the dark web of the occult à la Crowley. At the heart of the enchantment is the counterfeit promise of ultimate meaning through self-divination."
In its various materials, Cicada 3301 materials often reference Gnosticism, the history of the Levant (most prevalently, Nebuchadnezzar II and various Sumerian/Bablyonian myths), and the work of William Blake, Carl Jung, and Sir Aleister Crowley. The group was widely thought to have been involved with the development and distribution of the disturbing spectrographical film 11B-X-1371 and the release and dissemination of William Gibson's cryptographical tone poem Agrippa (Book of the Dead). Throughout the late 1990's, the group released a number of GPS-based puzzles, reportedly all centering on remote areas of South Africa and Uganda.