In a new effort to recruit students, the CIA visited Virginia Tech’s campus on Thursday and invited students to partake in an online problem-solving exercise.

A new recruiting initiative by the CIA tasked Virginia Tech students to participate in online puzzles and in a simulation that aimed to disarm a bomb in space before it blew up in an effort to reach out to tech students interested in possibly working for the CIA in the future.

Tom, a CIA employee who didn’t give his last name for security purposes, told the Roanoke Times, “It’s an effort to get people who may be interested in this and give them an opportunity to get their feet wet and interact with us.”

Overall, 50 students participated in the CIA’s online puzzle, which they solved in nearly 24 hours.

“As part of a new recruiting initiative, the CIA reached out to [Virginia] Tech students and invited them to take part in an online problem-solving exercise to give them a glimpse of what it’s like to be a CIA agent [sic].” https://t.co/AVO6lphJcu

— (@alexrblackwell) October 25, 2024

Per The Roanoke Times:

The task at hand, to disarm a bomb in space before it could wreak havoc on Earth, was obviously fictional for a group of Virginia Tech students gathered around a table Thursday.

But the mission behind the exercise was real: To get young people interested in obtaining and analyzing information used to protect national security – and hopefully to someday work for the Central Intelligence Agency.

As part of a new recruiting initiative, the CIA reached out to Tech students and invited them to take part in an online problem-solving exercise to give them a glimpse of what it’s like to be a CIA agent.

The program, which debuted at Tech in affiliation with the university’s Hume Center for National Security and Technology, will eventually be introduced at other colleges and universities in Virginia.

In the hypothetical situation, the CIA recruitment officer explained, ‘There was a military raid based on top-secret intel that revealed a group of terrorists was plotting to gain access to a launch facility, which was then used to send bombs into space.’

The students were then tasked to use codes to prevent the launch before the bombs were launched.

As the students were attempting to neutralize the threat, a CIA officer pressured the students by telling them, “It would destroy the International Space Station, mass chaos.”

The officer added, “We lose GPS, we lose banking, we lose the Internet. Just bad for humanity.”

Despite the pressure, students were able to disarm the rocket successfully.