TheRegister on anti-crypto/stego-hype in US media; UMich report

[Xeni Jardin]

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."
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"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. <...>"
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<"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>
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