Blinky Rides Again: RCMP suspect al-Qaida messages

[J.A. Terranson]

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004, Tyler Durden wrote:

> Those cops you taught...do you think they were stupid enough to assume that,
> because this was their first time hearing about Stego, that Al Qaeda was
> only starting to use it right then?


Thats an interesting question on several different levels:

(1) There is (both within LEAs and the rest of us) a wide range of
opinions as to the feasability of stego being used in the field for
anything useful.  Remember that USA "professional spies" (who spent over a
year learning tradcraft IIRC) had continuous problems with very simple
encryptions/decryptions in the real world.

(2) The folks in the "Al Qaeda is Satan" camp generally believe that not
only is stego in wide use, but that AlQ has somehow managed to turn it
into a high bandwidth channel which is being used every day to Subvert The
American Way Of Life and infect Our Precious Bodily Fluids.  No amount of
education seems to dissuade these people from their misbeliefs.

(3) The other camp believes that stego is a lab-only toy, unsuitable for
much of anything besides scaring the shit out of the people in the Satan
camp.

(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?

-- 
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at 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