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

What does a spy agency give for Christmas? How about a riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a mystery.

GCHQ, Britain’s electronic and cyber-intelligence agency, this week published its annual Christmas Challenge – a seasonal greeting card that doubles as a set of fiendishly difficult puzzles designed to excite young minds about solving cyphers and unearthing clues.

The challenge is aimed at young people aged 11 to 18, who are encouraged to work in teams and use “lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance” to crack the seven brainteasers set by GCHQ’s “in-house puzzlers.”

The card is sent by the head of GCHQ — short for Government Communications Headquarters — to other national security chiefs around the world. Puzzles were first included in 2015 and have become an annual tradition.

The agency admits the festive fun has an ulterior motive.

GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler said she hoped the card would inspire young people to explore STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – “and to consider what a career in cybersecurity and intelligence might have to offer.”

It also aims to dispel some myths about intelligence work, fueled by super-agent James Bond and other fictional spies.