The challenge, primarily a marketing exercise run by the company started by space traveller Mark Shuttleworth, will run until the code has been cracked, says Melanie Reed, Thawte marketing co-ordinator. "They are competing against one another, not the clock."

Reed says the challenge is quite tough and no one has solved it yet. Thawte will issue clues to the challenge every two weeks until it has been solved.

Entrants on the www.thawte.com/cryptochallenge site are issued with a multi-line code and a key, of which they have to make sense. But the site does warn that the code is "not for the faint-hearted or the feeble-minded. This code has been designed to give you a complete cerebral workout."

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