The Register (UK) published this snarky article, below, poking fun at recent anti-stego/crypto-hype in the American press in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. "USA Toady" is either a pretty funny typo, or a pretty funny dis. The article references a CITI/U.Mich. report from 31 August, "Detecting Steganographic Content on the Internet" -- apologies in advance if the report url (or analysis thereof) was previously posted onlist, I may have missed it. from the UMich report (url below): "We have analyzed over two million images downloaded from eBay auctions, and have not been able to find a single hidden message." ------------------------------------------------ "THE REGISTER - 09.22.01 Research slaps crypto-banning Feds http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21829.html While America's own fundamentalists - led by US Attorney General John Ashcroft - prepare the most draconian assault on Americans' civil liberties since the second world war, their very own causus beli seems to be vanishing. The enormous increase in surveillance has been justified by claims that terrorists are using cryptography, and in particular steganography: the art of hiding information. USA Toady has run a series of articles on the theme, all predictably quoting 'anonymous' security sources, describing how messages are passed hidden in picture innocuous picture files on sites such as eBay. Or maybe, not so innocuous. The tabloid even managed to score a tasteless bullseye last week with an article that combined pornography, cryptography, terrorism and sport in the same article. For any readers who doubted the message, it was illustrated with a picture of /bin/laden himself. <...>" ------------------------------------------------ <"Detecting Steganographic Content on the Internet" 800K, PDF Center for Information Technology integration University of Michigan http://www.citi.umich.edu/techreports/reports/citi-tr-01-11.pdf> ------------------------------------------------