By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

Nearly as soon as the internet started buzzing about a super secret code embedded in the new Cyber Command’s logo come reports it’s been cracked.

Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher with Panda Security, says the characters on the inner gold ring of the logo “represent the MD5 hash of the group’s mission statement,” reports ComputerWorld.

“Mr. Correll is correct…it’s a MD5 hash,” said Lt. Commander Steve Curry of the U.S. Navy, in an e-mail to the magazine.

An MD5 hash is software used for encryption.

Correll said it took him less than an hour to figure it out after a story about the code appeared on Wired’s Danger Room blog.

Wired announced a contest in the blog for cracking the code, with the winner having their choice of a t-shirt or a pass to the International Spy Museum. In a follow up column, Wired announced Danger Room reader jemelehill as the winner, having been the first to post the solution in the story’s comments.

In a Defense Department blog, Petty Officer 2nd Class Elliott Fabrizio said, “Well, I cracked the code, but you can keep my t-shirt. (Wired.com shirts aren’t exactly babe magnets.)”

Comments posted to the Wired story included guesses like:

• “Soylent Green is people”
• “If you can read this, send your resume to jobs@nsa.gov.”
• “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
• “If the intelligence community is a family, think of us as the uncle no one talks about.”
• “In God We Trust All Others We Monitor”

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