UK spy agency releases annual Christmas card puzzle to uncover future codebreakers

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s spy agency is celebrating the festive season with a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery. The cyber-intelligence agency GCHQ on Wednesday published its annual Christmas Challenge, a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles. The goal is to excite young minds about solving cyphers and unearthing clues. Young people aged 11 to 18 are encouraged to work in teams and use “lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance” to crack brainteasers set by GCHQ’s puzzlers. The Christmas Challenge has been an annual tradition since 2015. GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler said she hoped it would inspire young people “to consider what a career in cybersecurity and intelligence might have to offer.”