FC: Did Bin Laden use steganography to hide files on eBay?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[These results, alas, aren't as interesting as they could be. I urge Greg 
to broaden the search. The article in question 
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm) never 
mentioned eBay, so analyzing eBay images isn't that helpful. The article 
talked of: "sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web 
sites." Seems to me that in debates, we should assume that Bin Laden is 
using crypto and stego, and frame our responses accordingly. If he isn't, 
the next generation certainly will. --DBM]

*********

From: "Greg Schnippel" <schnippy () earthlink net>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: FOR POLITECH: Study finds low use of steganography on the web
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 00:50:06 -0400

Declan -

Thought this might be interest to your readers,
especially considering the currrent debate in Congress
to outlaw encryption and steganography products.

In contrast to earlier reports from USA Today that Bin
Laden was using steganography, a technique that allows the
user to concel a message in a document or image, to conceal maps
and secret messages a new study from the University of Michigan finds
no widespread use of steganography on the web.

Of course, they only searched 2 million images on Ebay. They
are going to conduct a similar search on USENET next. I'm
waiting for someone to convert this into a distibuted computing
project like 'SETI@home' but "hunt-bin-laden@home" :)
Possible, but lots of legal and practical questions to be
answered.

Full study is here:
http://www.citi.umich.edu/techreports/reports/citi-tr-01-11.pdf

USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm


-Greg Schnippel

------------------------------------------------------

New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991340
Massive search reveals no secret code in web images

15:56   25  September  01
Will Knight

New research indicates that terrorists are not using advanced computer tools
to hide messages in innocuous-looking web images.

... 




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