# Apply for a Secret CIA Job

The CIA are hiring cryptographers of three levels, just solve your corresponding rank's cipher to apply for the job.

Basic cryptographer:

"We are sure he/her in neglected greatness, triumphs over nefariousness." -Doctor Cryptology

-post your job application in the "cmbdl mfuufscpy"

Lead cryptologist:

The Key for this AutoKey Cipher Is "lartneCecnegilletnIycnegA"

yiyeuoym, lhyc cmghl vs juma wq, zideucl itslpkliqe, tzu sdvxwqgw rfi czzv vvbzbrj, ayo lzig xb piu mivf.

Covert Mastermind:

Try and Crack the CIA's own Master Code:

Xdmbplf sp sid odx zhd, xd'wd cdfm nphunshof znv epq zdbqt, rudq nvsthed, xdmbplf sp sid DHB.

Hints (WE KNOW IF YOU USE THEM):

Basic Cryptographer:

Pay Attention to the starting letters

Lead Cryptologist:

It's an AutoKey Cipher

Covert Mastermind:

Pay attention to the letters that come before and after the current one in the alphabet

• For Your Eyes Only

CLASSIFIED INFO

• that is much better. remember the use of ">!" at the beggining of a line to hide it. (I edit for you to see) – lois6b Nov 15 '16 at 11:35
• seem so. see the difference between your previous post and this one? good job – lois6b Nov 15 '16 at 11:55
• @StackOverflow-Are you sure Lead cryptologist text is valid? – Techidiot Nov 15 '16 at 12:16
• Fixed the Cipher Text In Lead Cryptographer! – Stack Overflow Nov 15 '16 at 12:28
• Ok, A suggestion- Always try to double check your puzzle before posting it. That ciphertext was unsolvable initially. – Sid Nov 15 '16 at 12:30

## 4 Answers

Partial

For Basic cryptographer:

The answer is already posted by @Sid
Initial letters give WASHINGTON DC and the code with a rot 25 gives Black Letterbox

For Lead Cryptologist:

The key is actually "CentralIntelligenceAgency" (CIA) spelled backwards

The message is

Well done, your ready to join us, destroy everything, all evidence you ever existed, and head to New York

For the Covert Mastermind:

The odd letters are ROT25 (shifted left by 1) and the even ones are ROT1 (shifted right by 1)

so the message is:

Welcome to the new age, we've been monitoring you for years, step outside, welcome to the CIA

• mqgvmtgpe, each letter rotates out. so "m" couldn't be in there, but thanks anyway, I'll check over it – Stack Overflow Nov 15 '16 at 11:53
• Oh you already got it, didn't notice :) – Jonathan Allan Nov 15 '16 at 12:05
• @JonathanAllan oh, thanks, good job on getting the Covert Mastermind one done too:) – Stack Overflow Nov 15 '16 at 12:10
• Have you tried doing the cipher text backward? – Sid Nov 15 '16 at 12:16
• How come the CIA cannot manage basic grammar? – Strawberry Nov 15 '16 at 13:57

Partial(Working)

-post your job application in the "cmbdl mfuufscpy"

Rot 25 gives Black LetterBox which gives -post your job application in the "Black Letter Box"

The basic cryptographer

Initial letters give WASHINGTON D.C. (Pointed out by @JonathanAllan) and the code with a rot 25 gives Black Letter Box

The covert Mastermind

As oleslaw finds out (Which I also did find independently, except the "monitoring" part, which I was a bit confused on), it is "Welcome to the new age, we've been monitoring you for years, step outside, welcome to the CIA"

The lead Cryptologist

It is an autokey cipher with the key as "CENTRALINTELLIGENCEAGENCY" (as @Oleslaw found out). Solving it, we get :"welldone, your ready to join us, destroy everything, all evidence you ever existed, and head to new york."

• ... Doctor Cryptology. – Jonathan Allan Nov 15 '16 at 11:48

Lead is what it says on the tin:

key-autokey with just the reversed words reversed and lower cased: centralintelligenceagency
yields:
welldone, your ready to join us, destroy everything, all evidence you ever existed, and head to new york.

Covert:

Rotate back 1 letter or forward one letter alphabetically:
Wclaoke ro rhc ncw ygc, wc'vc bcel mogtmrgne ymu dop ycaps, qtcp mursgdc, wclaoke ro rhc CGA
Yencqmg tq tje pey aie, ye'xe degn oqivotipg aow fqr aecru, sver owtuife, yencqmg tq tje EIC
and interleave:
Welcome to the new age, we've been mqitoring you for years, step outside, welcome to the CIA
pretty sure mqitoring is meant to be monitoring.

...and for completeness basic:

Reading the first line as an acrostic yields Washington D.C.
and rotate the letters of the quoted text back one alphabetically to yield black letterbox

• correct, but I don't know how you ended up with mqitoring? – Stack Overflow Nov 15 '16 at 12:09
• Oh, I saw it was wrong and worked from the back of the word the m start seemed likely with the result, maybe I should say ooitoring though. – Jonathan Allan Nov 15 '16 at 12:15
• @StackOverflow by the way I don't think they would use your where you're would be correct; nice little puzzle though. – Jonathan Allan Nov 15 '16 at 12:38