By Jason Andress

It's scary how the field of cyber warfare is developing. Not only nation-states but also rogue groups with varying agendas find interesting ways to communicate. Even if you catch them, can you decipher the plot against you? Whether they attack governments, companies or even you personally, the stakes are high. To test your skills, I can only say one thing... It's contest time again!

From those of you that were victi... err participated in the last contest, you'll find a few familiar items, as well as a number of new puzzles as well. This time around we will be testing your observations skills, coding skills, code-breaking skills, and even more. Rest assured that much gleeful cackling took place whilst this series of puzzles was being developed. Additionally, we will be giving away fabulous prizes. Don, tell them what they might win...
   
   - DerbyCon is SOLD OUT, but we have 3 tickets for the first 3 participants to break the code in Part I. Send the decrypted results ASAP to spookywarfare ( at ) ethicalhacker . net.
   - Signed copies of the upcoming Syngress book, The Basics of Cyber Warfare, by Jason Andress and Steve Winterfeld go to 3 of those who entered by Midnight on Halloween (Details below).
   
For this go around, you'll have a chronologically ordered set of clues to help you along your way, couched in the form of a bit of my own personal doggerel. So let's get going.