I haven’t yet written up this year’s DBIR puzzle, so here’s an article at Dark Reading that neatly summarizes it.
Verizon’s earlier contests were mainly cryptography challenges with blocks of cipher that contestants had to decrypt. But the contest has evolved over the years from a crypto focus to more of a mind-bending puzzler. “It’s less about someone being an expert in cryptography as it is for someone who is really good at troubleshooting and solving problems… and being really good at puzzles,” says Mark Spitler, co-author of the Verizon DBIR and the mastermind behind the cover challenge contest.