GCHQ releases annual Christmas card puzzle with hidden message for you to find

GCHQ are looking for the real wise men and women 
The Christmas brain teaser
GCHQ

GCHQ has revealed a special brainteaser on the front of their annual Christmas card.

The card, sent by GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming to allies in US and Canada as well as British staff, was made public by the spy agency who urged “wise men and women” to crack the code.

To solve it, you'll need to complete a number of incomplete letter sequences before plotting your answers on a special Christmas bauble to reveal a hidden message.

On the front is a circuit board pattern in the shape of a bauble, with space for nine answers.

There are nine letter sequences on the inside of the card which need to be fed into the decoration to reveal the message.

A GCHQ spokesman said: “Problem-solving is at the heart of what we do. Taking on this Christmas cracker gives puzzlers an insight into the skills you need to be a GCHQ analyst.

“Bring together a mix of minds by sharing it with the wise men and women in your household to find the solution.”

Social media users are boasting of having cracked the code in under half an hour from the card’s release on Twitter.

It comes as the GCHQ chief revealed that data sharing with EU nations will not change even if there is a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Fleming warned that an agreement still needed to be reached with the EU around data adequacy, a status granted by the European Commission allowing a free flow of data between European Economic Area (EEA) countries and those outside it.

However, Mr Fleming said the UK is operating “even more closely” with European counterparts now than it was at the point of the 2016 referendum.

Mr Fleming told an event in Chatham House: “It is the case that today we are operating even more closely with our European colleagues than we were at the point of the referendum and we do that because there’s great national self-interest in close cooperation and I fully expect that to be the case the 1st of January, deal or no deal.”

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