It is March and the lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "flag".
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump
(egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk)
sold out Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
Now Twitte X keeps failing and Elon is
throwing a tantrum, blaming a massive Ukrainian cyberattack.
(Oh man, this reminds me of the time Elon carried
out a massive cyberattack on Twitter by going to a data
center and physically unplugging cables and pulling out
server racks, convinced Twitter's automatic failover could
handle it. It could…until it couldn't.
Anyhow, lesson learned: Elon doesn't understand X
as well as he thinks he does.)
This is probably a "false-flag" operation. Hackers in some country
might attack X, but not directly. First hack into some
poorly-defended computers in Ukraine; then attack X from
those computers. Oh hey, there's a puzzle idea:
A Russian hacking group has plans to attack the USA. To make sure any US retaliation hits some other country, the hackers launch their attacks from foreign servers. Thus, victims don't see attacks coming from something.ru but instead something.else.ba if the attack's coming from, say, BosniA. Here's a list of the hacker plans: Code names, partially-retrieved false code names, and summaries. We also have a list of countries in which the hackers maintain botnets, previously-hacked machines ready to launch attacks. Can you figure out the false names using the two-letter country codes that replace ru? We filled in one for you project banner, from Bosnia. When you're done, the circled letters should spell out Elon's first reaction to engineers who try to tell him how X really works.
| Code Name | False Name | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| runner | ⒷAnner | Move fast to set up false flag operation |
| truth | t◯_th | Misleading facts about water fluoridation |
| rumor | _◯mor | Subvert defense against disinformation |
| cruel | c◯_el | Disrupt desert supply lines without mercy |
| ruin | ◯_in | Perfect impostor leaves wreckage |
| citrus | cit◯_s | LimeWire trojan used on population centers |
| virus | vi◯_s | Hide malware in obsolete short videos |
| rumble | ◯_mble | Counterfeit bets on OKC Thunder |
IANA ccTLDs a.k.a. "country codes"
Argentina: .ar
Armenia: .am
Bosnia: .ba
Estonia: .ee
Gabon: .ga
Ireland: .ie
Niger: .ne
Taiwan: .tw
Clues, rot-13'd:
- Gjvggre hfrq gb eha n fubeg-ivqrb fvgr pnyyrq Ivar orsber shzoyvat vg. Gjvggre zvfznantrzrag cerqngrf Ryba! (Ohg ur ernyyl ryringrq gur zvfznantrzrag gb arj urvtugf.)
- Jngre syhbevqngvba svtugf gbbgu qrpnl.
- Gurer ner znal pvgvrf va Verynaq; pbairefryl, "vr" vf va "pvgvrf."
Solution, rot-13'd:
ehaare / Onaare / Zbir snfg gb frg hc snyfr synt bcrengvba / Obfavn / on gehgu / gRrgu / Zvfyrnqvat snpgf nobhg jngre syhbevqngvba / Rfgbavn / rr ehzbe / nEzbe / Fhoireg qrsrafr ntnvafg qvfvasbezngvba / Netragvan / ne pehry / pNzry / Qvfehcg qrfreg fhccyl yvarf jvgubhg zrepl / Nezravn / nz ehva / Gjva / Cresrpg vzcbfgbe yrnirf jerpxntr / Gnvjna / gj pvgehf / pVgvrf / YvzrJver gebwna hfrq ba cbchyngvba pragref / Verynaq / vr ivehf / ivArf / Uvqr znyjner va bofbyrgr fubeg ivqrbf / Avtre / ar ehzoyr / Tnzoyr / Pbhagresrvg orgf ba BXP Guhaqre / Tnoba / tn
