Hey everyone, I'm currently working on an internship assignment and I could really use some help decoding what’s going on here.

The Challenge Summary:

I'm given a public key and an encrypted/private-looking string, and asked to figure out a decipher key that can verify the private key associated with the public one.

The assignment explicitly says:

"You must discover a decipher key that, when passed to a verification script along with the public key, will confirm the authenticity of a private key."

The Clue:

"The first step to book and discover the AI + Human collaboration"

I’ve tried things like:

• The book Human + Machine's ISBN: 9781633693864

• The word “Mindset” (first MELDS principle from the book)

• Other terms like “AI”, “Propel”, “HumanMachine”, etc.

Nothing seems to work. The site just returns:

"Verification failed. Please check your key and try again."

The Keys I Have:

• Public Key: 1GnZ2IDFxZ6IEBZKTVbbxU6qk1SGKpMZkkXMlaQ20zU=

• Encrypted/Private-looking string: VWyNWQvHHYmFOD/vSNC6JhcdEfFDeN7MSiHbTmRwKYvUadnYgMXFnogQFkpNVtvFTqqTVIYqkxmSRcyVpDbTNQ==

They look like Base64-encoded keys or signatures, but I’m not sure what algorithm or format is being used. Could be RSA, AES, ECDSA, HMAC… no clue yet.

What I'm Looking For:

• Has anyone done a challenge like this before?

• Can you help me identify what format or crypto method this might be using?

• Could the decipher key be something super obscure (like a launch name, version, or marketing term)?

• Any tips on how to approach this cryptographically?

Any help is appreciated! I’m treating this both as a puzzle and a learning opportunity. Willing to dig in deeper if someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance!