Unlock the Phone
Alex Mercer's phone was found on their desk, locked with a 4-digit passcode. Below is everything recovered from the desk. Work out the passcode from what's here, and hang on to anything else — not all of it is needed yet. This is a basic form of OSINT (open-source intelligence): gathering information from things people have made public or simply left lying around.
// ARTIFACTS FOUND ON ALEX'S DESK
Item 1 — Card found in the top drawer
🙂
SOUTHERN CROSS CYBER DEFENCE UNIT
A. MERCER
Building access — Level 2
Item 2 — Printed photo, tucked in the drawer
Handwritten on the back: "Case 4471 — Exhibit 04."
Item 3 — Takeaway coffee cup
Item 4 — Printed social media post
Item 5 — Post-it note, stuck to the monitor
Happy Birthday Alex!! Can't believe it's already the 4th of September —
hope you have a great one. See you at drinks after work.
— Sam
New to this? Here's exactly how to approach it: not every item on the desk
matters for this particular lock — a couple of them are just there to see if
you'll get distracted by any number that "looks about right." Read through
each item and ask "is this actually a date, or does it just contain digits?"
One item mentions an actual calendar date (a day and a month). Take that day
and month and write them as four digits, day first, then month — this format
is called DDMM. For example, if a note mentioned "the 1st of March," you'd
try 0103 on the keypad. Work out this exercise's date the same way, and enter
it on the phone.
14:52
Enter passcode to unlock
Unlocked — Tuesday 14:52
Note — "If anything happens"
To self — If anything happens, my terminal password is: Bellingen#94 The case file is in the vault. Don't leave this lying around. — A
CASE TAG — enter this on the mission hub