Where would you be on New Year’s Eve without a #sophospuzzle?

Are you working over New Year?

We are too, so we figured, “Why not have some fun that is technically educational while everyone else parties?”

That way, you can keep your eye on issues such as disk space, network traffic, CPU load, remote access logs, technical support queries about mice with flat batteries, and other important operational matters…

…while exercising the little grey cells at the same time.

The puzzle is deceptively simple.

Just extract the question hidden in the following data, and answer it:

493D5105 51151081 B481213C 5C813505 39648109 25514CFD

You may submit your answers (only one entry per person, please) any time until 2015-01-04T23:59-10, which is just before midnight in Hawaii on the first Sunday of 2015.

Send your entry to tips@sophos.com, and please start your subject line with the text SOPHOSPUZZLE SOLUTION.

→ When you enter, we’d love to know if we may identify you (whether you win or not, but especially if you win). Please let us know in your email if that’s OK: we can use your full name, your first name, your nickname, your Twitter handle, or just chalk you up as Anon Y. Mouse. It’s up to you. We won’t identify you unless you say we may. Note that if you win, we’ll need a delivery address and a phone number so we can send you the shirt. We won’t use that data for anything else.

As with other #sophospuzzles you may have tried in the past, you can ask for hints publicly on Twitter: just include the hashtag #sophospuzzle in your tweet.

And you can ask for help privately – but don’t expect us to do all the work for you! – by emailing Naked Security at tips@sophos.com.

There are five “ASCII art” Naked Security T-shirts up for grabs – one for the fastest correct answer, and four that we’ll draw randomly from the rest.

Enjoy!

→ Entries close at 23:59 Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time (UTC-10) on Sunday 2015-01-04. Sophos staff, those pro­fessionally connected to the company, and their families, are welcome to submit answers for fun, but can’t win. T-shirt styles may vary from those depicted. Only one entry per person. Sophos’s decision is final, and so on. Please read our official competition terms and conditions.