Researchers Combat Terrorists by Rooting Out Hidden Messages
<http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/509563/> Newswise Source: University of Delaware Released: Tue 01-Feb-2005, 13:10 ET Researchers Combat Terrorists by Rooting Out Hidden Messages Libraries Science News Keywords STEGANOGRAPHY, STEGANALYSIS, HIDDEN MESSAGES, DIGITAL IMAGES, CRYPTOGRAPHY, TERRORISM Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Description Researchers at the University of Delaware are working to combat terrorism by developing techniques to detect the use of steganography, which encompasses various methods of hiding messages in apparently ordinary digital images and videos. Newswise - A University of Delaware research team has received National Science Foundation funding to combat terrorism by developing techniques to detect the use of steganography, which encompasses various methods of hiding messages in apparently ordinary digital images and videos. It is feared electronic steganography can be used by terrorist organizations to pass along orders or other vital information surreptitiously through images posted on the Internet or sent via e-mail. The grant for more than $167,000 was awarded to Charles Boncelet, UD professor of electrical and computer engineering, to conduct research in the relatively new field of steganalysis. Boncelet will work on the project with Lisa Marvel, a UD graduate now employed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and with several graduate students. Boncelet said steganography is Greek for covered writing, and is a means by which a person can hide the very fact that they are communicating. In that, it differs from the better-known practice of cryptography, Greek for secret writing, in which a message is purposely garbled and can be understood only by those who have the key to decipher it. The two forms of communication are not mutually exclusive, Boncelet said, and can be combined. A person can encrypt a message and then hide the fact that they are sending it. Boncelet previously worked in steganography for the U.S. Army and through this project will begin working in steganalysis, or the development of methods by which to seek out steganography. "The work we are doing is in multimedia, with a focus on digital images," Boncelet said. "You can take an image on your web site and use steganographic techniques to hide a message in the image. The image looks completely ordinary but if you know the key, you can extract the secret message." "The object of the research," Boncelet said, "is to try to figure out how to find steganography in the images." The problem is that steganalysis is very difficult because the messages are hidden by design. However, Boncelet said, "when you hide a message in a digital image, you change the image a little bit. If you change the image too much, it gives it away." The way to determine any changes to an image, given that the steganalyst does not have the benefit of the original for purposes of comparison, is to use algorithms and very fast computers to look for unusual features in the image. Boncelet said he believes the research will lead to a novel class of electronic steganography searchers based on image representations that depend on a quality factor, with the long-term goal being automated scanners that can rapidly find likely candidates amongst large numbers of images and videos. "Assuming the technique we develop is successful, we hope to branch out to video and audio," Boncelet said, "but right now the focus is on digital images." In addition to the research, the project will provide training in steganalysis and intelligence techniques to the students involved. Boncelet said steganography "is a very big fear for governments," adding that the security agencies that deal with the technique "worry about terrorists passing messages, or traitors leaking out information from secure sites." After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was widespread speculation in the public press that terrorists had used steganography on the Internet to communicate plans. Although those reports were never confirmed, the possibility remains a grave concern. One of the earliest examples of steganography comes from ancient history, Boncelet said, explaining that a Greek city was surrounded by enemy soldiers and the leader wanted to get a message to his allies to send troops. He selected a slave and shaved his head, tattooing the plea for help on his scalp, then allowed the slave's hair to grow back over the message. The slave was sent out of the city walls, was captured and released by the enemy troops, and arrived safely with the message. In World War II, Boncelet said, American soldiers used steganography to provide information on their whereabouts to relatives back home by putting a pinprick on a map. Army censors were forced to pepper letters with hundreds of pinpricks to offset the practice. German spies used steganography in microdots, tiny images of typed pages that could be pasted over periods in seemingly harmless letters. The NSF grant is for one year and was awarded through the Approaches to Combat Terrorism Program in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which supports new concepts in basic research and work force development with the potential to contribute to national security. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Counter-stego detection. Seems to me a main tool will be a 2-D Fourier analysis...Stego will certainly have a certain "thumbprint", depending on the algorithm. Are there certain images that can hide stego more effectively? IN other words, these images should have a lot of spectral energy in the same frequency bands where Stego would normally show. -TD
From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com> To: cryptography@metzdowd.com, cypherpunks@al-qaeda.net, osint@yahoogroups.com Subject: Researchers Combat Terrorists by Rooting Out Hidden Messages Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 15:38:02 -0500
<http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/509563/>
Newswise
Source: University of Delaware
Released: Tue 01-Feb-2005, 13:10 ET
Researchers Combat Terrorists by Rooting Out Hidden Messages
Libraries Science News
Keywords STEGANOGRAPHY, STEGANALYSIS, HIDDEN MESSAGES, DIGITAL IMAGES, CRYPTOGRAPHY, TERRORISM
Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only
Description Researchers at the University of Delaware are working to combat terrorism by developing techniques to detect the use of steganography, which encompasses various methods of hiding messages in apparently ordinary digital images and videos.
Newswise - A University of Delaware research team has received National Science Foundation funding to combat terrorism by developing techniques to detect the use of steganography, which encompasses various methods of hiding messages in apparently ordinary digital images and videos.
It is feared electronic steganography can be used by terrorist organizations to pass along orders or other vital information surreptitiously through images posted on the Internet or sent via e-mail.
The grant for more than $167,000 was awarded to Charles Boncelet, UD professor of electrical and computer engineering, to conduct research in the relatively new field of steganalysis. Boncelet will work on the project with Lisa Marvel, a UD graduate now employed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and with several graduate students.
Boncelet said steganography is Greek for covered writing, and is a means by which a person can hide the very fact that they are communicating. In that, it differs from the better-known practice of cryptography, Greek for secret writing, in which a message is purposely garbled and can be understood only by those who have the key to decipher it.
The two forms of communication are not mutually exclusive, Boncelet said, and can be combined. A person can encrypt a message and then hide the fact that they are sending it.
Boncelet previously worked in steganography for the U.S. Army and through this project will begin working in steganalysis, or the development of methods by which to seek out steganography.
"The work we are doing is in multimedia, with a focus on digital images," Boncelet said. "You can take an image on your web site and use steganographic techniques to hide a message in the image. The image looks completely ordinary but if you know the key, you can extract the secret message."
"The object of the research," Boncelet said, "is to try to figure out how to find steganography in the images."
The problem is that steganalysis is very difficult because the messages are hidden by design. However, Boncelet said, "when you hide a message in a digital image, you change the image a little bit. If you change the image too much, it gives it away."
The way to determine any changes to an image, given that the steganalyst does not have the benefit of the original for purposes of comparison, is to use algorithms and very fast computers to look for unusual features in the image.
Boncelet said he believes the research will lead to a novel class of electronic steganography searchers based on image representations that depend on a quality factor, with the long-term goal being automated scanners that can rapidly find likely candidates amongst large numbers of images and videos.
"Assuming the technique we develop is successful, we hope to branch out to video and audio," Boncelet said, "but right now the focus is on digital images."
In addition to the research, the project will provide training in steganalysis and intelligence techniques to the students involved.
Boncelet said steganography "is a very big fear for governments," adding that the security agencies that deal with the technique "worry about terrorists passing messages, or traitors leaking out information from secure sites."
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was widespread speculation in the public press that terrorists had used steganography on the Internet to communicate plans. Although those reports were never confirmed, the possibility remains a grave concern.
One of the earliest examples of steganography comes from ancient history, Boncelet said, explaining that a Greek city was surrounded by enemy soldiers and the leader wanted to get a message to his allies to send troops. He selected a slave and shaved his head, tattooing the plea for help on his scalp, then allowed the slave's hair to grow back over the message. The slave was sent out of the city walls, was captured and released by the enemy troops, and arrived safely with the message.
In World War II, Boncelet said, American soldiers used steganography to provide information on their whereabouts to relatives back home by putting a pinprick on a map. Army censors were forced to pepper letters with hundreds of pinpricks to offset the practice. German spies used steganography in microdots, tiny images of typed pages that could be pasted over periods in seemingly harmless letters.
The NSF grant is for one year and was awarded through the Approaches to Combat Terrorism Program in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which supports new concepts in basic research and work force development with the potential to contribute to national security.
-- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
At 02:07 PM 2/1/2005, Tyler Durden wrote:
Counter-stego detection.
Seems to me a main tool will be a 2-D Fourier analysis...Stego will certainly have a certain "thumbprint", depending on the algorithm. Are there certain images that can hide stego more effectively? IN other words, these images should have a lot of spectral energy in the same frequency bands where Stego would normally show.
Images that ideal for hiding secret messages using stego are those that by default contain stego with no particular hidden content. A sort of Crowds approach to stego. Steve
On Tue, 2005-02-01 at 23:21 -0800, Steve Schear wrote:
At 02:07 PM 2/1/2005, Tyler Durden wrote:
Counter-stego detection.
Seems to me a main tool will be a 2-D Fourier analysis...Stego will certainly have a certain "thumbprint", depending on the algorithm. Are there certain images that can hide stego more effectively? IN other words, these images should have a lot of spectral energy in the same frequency bands where Stego would normally show.
Images that ideal for hiding secret messages using stego are those that by default contain stego with no particular hidden content. A sort of Crowds approach to stego.
If you really want to send secret messages, just send it in the chaff in spam. Everyone is programmed to ignore it or filter it out. -- "When a student reads in a math book that there are no absolutes, suddenly every value he's been taught is destroyed. And the next thing you know, the student turns to crime and drugs." - Mel Gabler - Censor
On Wed, 2 Feb 2005, Alan wrote:
If you really want to send secret messages, just send it in the chaff in spam. Everyone is programmed to ignore it or filter it out.
Yeah, but it doesn't make for great story copy or funding proposals ;-) -- 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
Just herd of this http://www.spammimic.com/ AW Alan wrote:
On Tue, 2005-02-01 at 23:21 -0800, Steve Schear wrote:
If you really want to send secret messages, just send it in the chaff in spam. Everyone is programmed to ignore it or filter it out.
On Tue, Feb 01, 2005 at 11:21:31PM -0800, Steve Schear wrote:
At 02:07 PM 2/1/2005, Tyler Durden wrote:
Counter-stego detection.
Seems to me a main tool will be a 2-D Fourier analysis...Stego will certainly have a certain "thumbprint", depending on the algorithm. Are
Stego doesn't need to have a detectable (as telling apart from noise) signature. If you show me how you test for stego I can show you a way to package content that will pass that test. The problem space is similiar to build good digital watermarks. The difficulty is constructing a realistic-looking noise for a given set of digital sources. Given that the tests take crunch, this will be limited to forensics. (And one would wonder why the turdorrists smart enough to use steganography wouldn't use really good cryptographic file systems). And any idiot knows successful terrorists don't use crypto.
there certain images that can hide stego more effectively? IN other words, these images should have a lot of spectral energy in the same frequency bands where Stego would normally show.
Images that ideal for hiding secret messages using stego are those that by default contain stego with no particular hidden content. A sort of Crowds approach to stego.
If you have noise in the signal, can you substitute that noise with your payload easily, or is it better to use synthetic low-noise signals, and add your suitably encoded payload to it? -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]
hi, Tyler Durden wrote:
Are there certain images that can hide stego more effectively? IN other words, these images should have a lot of spectral energy in the same frequency bands where Stego would normally show.
Yes, there should be a lot of noise in the image, some way or the other. If you reduce the amount of info you want to send per image, the lesser the chances that it be detected. Once you detect and recover the entire information, decrypting it by some cryptalysis technique is another nearly impossible task. The whole thing appears to do with politics. Anyway,a lot of research grants would be spend for stegano detection, which is particlarly good for the community. Sarad. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
participants (8)
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Alan -
AW -
Eugen Leitl -
J.A. Terranson -
R.A. Hettinga -
Sarad AV -
Steve Schear -
Tyler Durden