On Fri, 10 Dec 2004, Trei, Peter wrote:
J.A. Terranson wrote:
(4) I have yet to meet a full dozen people who share my belief that while stego *may* be in use, if it is, that use is for one way messages of semaphore-class messages only. I really do not understand why this view is poopoo'd by all sides, so I must be pretty dense?
For semaphores and codewords, stego isn't needed. Simply agree on a signal - if a post appears in alt.anonymous.messages with the subject "To JAT", the intended recipient has got all the info he needs.
Assuming you are willing to use your semaphores over overt channels. Rudimentary stego is useful when you want those same low-bandwidth messages delivered covertly.
Stego is needed only when the message is too complex to have a codeword.
Yet at the same time, stego is such a low bandwidth medium as to argue strongly against it's use for truly complex messaging systems.
Even without software, 'numbers station' type transmissions can be sent anonymously through the net.
We're not necessarily talking about an IP transport for these messages. My belief is that any unicast IP transport is inherently dangerous for critical *must-be-truly-anonymous* messaging. To put it another way, I would not (if I was AlQ, which I'm not. At least not this week...) use the internet for critical messaging. Just like I wouldn't use a satellite phone ;-) -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org 0xBD4A95BF Civilization is in a tailspin - everything is backwards, everything is upside down- doctors destroy health, psychiatrists destroy minds, lawyers destroy justice, the major media destroy information, governments destroy freedom and religions destroy spirituality - yet it is claimed to be healthy, just, informed, free and spiritual. We live in a social system whose community, wealth, love and life is derived from alienation, poverty, self-hate and medical murder - yet we tell ourselves that it is biologically and ecologically sustainable. The Bush plan to screen whole US population for mental illness clearly indicates that mental illness starts at the top. Rev Dr Michael Ellner