Blinky Rides Again: RCMP suspect al-Qaida messages

[R.W. (Bob) Erickson]

J.A. Terranson wrote:

>
>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?
>
>  
>
It only makes sense that transmitted stego payloads be simple codewords 
or signals.
For hand carried chunks of data, simple disguise is sufficient
The bulk transport of dangerous data is a threat model  that doesnt fit 
the situation.
Perhaps LEA confuse themselves thinking al-q is inciting a cultural 
revolution?
.
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