3301

The Cicada. 3301. 1033.
A secretive group/organization of ideologically driven individuals who employ a series of puzzles, cryptography, onions, codes, and even physical clues to lure in possible recruits.

This group is extremely disturbing and intriguing on several levels.
Let's start back to front. In reverse.
It all started in early 2012.
It is intriguing because of the nature of the trail. The way in which this bait was set.

A mysterious image with codes embedded leading to TOR sites with interactive coding, that in turn leads to further clues such as an OS, music of an occult variety, ancient Mayan numerology, obscure references to ancient Welsh legend, and even coded flyers/posters pasted in regions around the globe.
Clearly this is not the game of some nerd ensconced in his mother's basement.
Certainly, those of us in the 'business' do not see 3301 as an idle mind(s).
The trail led the 'solvers', largely in cryptography and hacking circles on the IRQ networks, to a final series of questionnaires and a secret email. An email these folks have not leaked.

Then silence from cicada. 3301 was done their drive.
Then in early 2013 the bug emerged again.
New clues and images emerged. They led to even weirder locations, stranger literary and philosophical references, including the works of the 'Beast', Aleister Crowley the notorious Satanist.
More onions. More TOR. New requests to build test servers and eventually contact for a very (un)lucky few of the 'solvers'.
The promise is the same as it has always been: Hidden knowledge, power, and a personal kind of divinity. It is as old as the mind of man.
Literally as old as Sin.

The game 3301 / 1033 is playing is one of the hunt.
The solvers are the hunted.
As 3301 informs the solvers in one precociously open hint: 'You cannot see the forest for the trees.'
One bizarre final note. A anonymous post that seemed (to the solvers) legitimate was made by a person who claimed to be a former member. The poster describes the cicada as a 'left hand path' religion. The poster claims their goals are Nazi-esque and the scientific technological veneer is masking an occult purpose. The poster claims he was seduced by their nihilism, and by their promises of power and knowledge; that he was recruited as an accomplished 'officer' in the military of his country. He claims the organization is composed of such influential men. The poster then explains he left when he decided to settle down and have a family, after which he came to Christ.
The claims of this defector catapulted this strange quest for the forbidden fruit into the public eye. This stark warning, if true, has made the hunt and the hunted known.
No longer the realm of hackers, 'solvers', and the intelligence community - the cicada now chirps for all to hear.
Be careful as you listen to it sing.
It can hypnotize.
Even the elect.
Pay attention to the numbers, if you do. They are the forest and the trees.

May God bless you and keep you all.
IHSv