A 14-year-old boy has cracked four levels of code imprinted on a commemorative 50-cent coin released by the nation's foreign intelligence cybersecurity agency.
The limited-edition commemorative coin was released on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with only 50,000 minted for the occasion.
The ASD said the coin's four different layers of encryption were each progressively harder to solve, and clues could be found on both sides — but ASD director-general Rachel Noble said in a speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday that the 14-year-old managed it in just over an hour.
"There's a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and, would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said.
"And believe it or not, a boy, 14 years old in Tasmania, was the first person in just over an hour to get all four layers right.
"Just unbelievable. Can you imagine being his mum?
"So we're hoping to meet him soon ... to recruit him."
A fifth level of encryption
Ms Noble yesterday said the coin celebrated the work of the agency's members and the evolution of code-breaking, and that those who crack the codes could be "pretty well placed" to get a job at the ASD.
"We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they'll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate."
Ms Noble said that while there were no classified messages on the coin, those who crack the codes could discover "some wonderful, uplifting messages".
"Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level."
She also revealed on Friday that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet.
