If you have missed the opportunity to buy yourself a portable Enigma encryption machine, or didn't know you could devote some of your CPU power while trying to crack unbroken Nazi Enigma ciphers, now is the time to consider another distributed computing cracking initiative I just came across to - "Assault on the Thirteenth Labour", part of the utopian Perplex City alternate reality game.
More on the story itself :
"The story centers on a fictional metropolis known as Perplex City. The Receda Cube, a priceless scientific and spiritual artefact, has been stolen and buried somewhere on Earth, and the game offers a real-life $200,000 reward to whoever can find it."
As a matter of fact, ever heard of Hive7? This is where the future is going, as I think virtual worlds intrigues result in a more quality real life, don't they? Still, it can also result in security problems with stolen virtual goods. The trend, given the popularity of these, will continue to emerge -- people, both rich and poor are putting hard cash into virtual properties and DoS attacks and phishing practices are already gaining popularity as well.
Technorati tags:
Security, Cryptography, Perplex City, Virtual Worlds, Distributed, New Media