Blinky Rides Again: RCMP suspect al-Qaida messages

Florian Weimer fw at deneb.enyo.de
Sun Dec 12 14:52:11 PST 2004


* Adam Shostack:

> On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 10:24:09PM +0100, Florian Weimer wrote:
> | * R. A. Hettinga quotes a news article:
> |
> | >  There have been numerous media reports in recent years that terrorist
> | > groups, including al-Qaida, were using steganographic techniques.
> |
> | As far as I know, these news stories can be tracked back to a
> | particular USA Today story.  There's also been a bunch of stories how
> | a covert channel in TCP could be used by terrorists to hide their
> | communication.
>
> There's very good evidence that Al Qaida does *not* use strong crypto.

However, they use some form of crypto.  From a recent press release of
our attorney general:

| Als mitgliedschaftliche Betdtigung im Sinne der Strafvorschrift des '
| 129b StGB f|r die "Ansar al Islam" wird den Beschuldigten vor allem
| zur Last gelegt, einen Mordanschlag auf den irakischen
| Ministerprdsidenten wdhrend seines Staatsbesuches in Deutschland am
| 2. und 3. Dezember 2004 geplant zu haben. Dies ergibt sich aus dem
| Inhalt einer Vielzahl zwischen den Beschuldigten seit dem 28. November
| 2004 verschl|sselt gef|hrter Telefongesprdche

<http://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/news/index.php?Artikel=158&Thema=5&Start=0
>

(Very rough translation: "The persons are accused of being members of
"Ansar al Islam" and planning the assassination of the Iraqi prime
minister during his visit to Germany on the 2nd and 3rd December,
2004.  This follows from the contents of a multitude of encrypted
telephone calls the accussed exchanged since November 28, 2004.")

Probably, they just used code words, and no "real" cryptography.  I'm
trying to obtain a confirmation, though.





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