That’s right! Step right up and be one of the ones to do those things you always wanted to do when you were that age! Be warned! This message may self-destruct in 5 seconds!
It’s been glamorized, idolized, fantasized and been used in everyday life in some cases. It’s saved lives, and taken them. It’s given direction, riddle and plain old confusion. Now, it seems to have become an electronic toy. Cryptography, code breaking, de-ciphering; there’s many names for it. How many kids dreamt of being a secret agent at one point or another? The attraction and curiosity were so great at times during the cold war and the advent of radio shows that companies often would reveal secret messages over the airwaves that you could not even attempt to read without the official “decoder ring”. The key to all knowledge! It’s a shame that all of that enthusiasm and childhood excitement appears to have faded away in recent times…only to be replaced by smart phones, gps watches and other super electronical stuff.
December 12, 2014. A trans-generational bridge now appears to us from the United Kingdom’s Government Communication headquarters (GCHQ). These folks are the agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the British government and armed forces. Who better to launch out an early search for the next savvy yet underage cryptography icon than a government intelligence agency right?
Introducing… Cryptoy.
“a fun, free, educational app about cryptography, designed by GCHQ for use by secondary school students and their teachers.”* or anyone else who wants to dabble in the realms of secret code!
Designed by student interns on placement at GCHQ, it was created as part of a project to demonstrate encryption techniques at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Since being introduced it has become a hit amongst both teacher and student hence the decision to make it available to the general public with this basic description:
“The app enables users to understand basic encryption techniques, learn about their history and then have a go at creating their own encoded messages. These can then be shared with friends via social media or more traditional means and the recipients can use the app to try to decipher the messages.”*
In a nutshell, the app shows and teaches basic examples of cryptography in a colorful and interactive way, in hopes of paving a pathway to an even greater development of mathematic and cyber skills. It almost resembles a science fiction movie plot if you’d like to take that leap. An 8 year old whiz kid with an affinity for puzzles challenges, defeats and improves on the app because it bores him only to have the focus of the “‘eye in the sky” turned his way. Whisked away to a fully funded educational facility he’s not only taught but, twisted and bent without even knowing until becoming… that guy with the horn rimmed glasses whose mind moves so fast he doesn’t even know he’s breaking code anymore. Thank you Hollywood and welcome to the rabbit hole.
All kidding aside, congrats to GCHQ for coming up with this. Any way we can get children interested in our future is a plus in this book. Mind bending puzzles for the modern age? A definite winner.
As of right now the App is only available for Android tablets, A version for IPads is due to be released sometime in 2015
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Source:
http://www.gchq.gov.uk/press_and_media/news_and_features/Pages/cryptoy-app-released.aspx
Since it’s not available at play store for most countries like Australia, here’s a link for apk file.
Link: http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/13625626/file.html
It looks like a nice app to play around with but ppl on reddit r/hacking including me find it too fishy to install an app developed by GCHQ. It only needs ‘other’ permission but imo, I wouldn’t even trust that.
Damn it’s not compatible with my current android version. Can anyone tell me which versions this app supports?
I want to play too…If CryptToy gets released on the iPad that my school assigned to me, as soon as possible. Pwease ? *.*
That is a good way to weed out the smart people, And to backdoor phones, I guess.
Anonymous HQ posting articles for U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters. I had wondered why I got no response to my request for them to share an article for a phone that protects peoples privacy. Now I know. Many people have been commenting on different articles that clearly were not what an Anon would expect. Welcome to the honeypot fellow Anon’s.