[These results, alas, aren't as interesting as they could be. I urge Greg
to broaden the search. The article in question
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm) never
mentioned eBay, so analyzing eBay images isn't that helpful. The article
talked of: "sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web
sites." Seems to me that in debates, we should assume that Bin Laden is
using crypto and stego, and frame our responses accordingly. If he isn't,
the next generation certainly will. --DBM]
*********
From: "Greg Schnippel" <schnippy_at_earthlink.net>
To: <declan_at_well.com>
Subject: FOR POLITECH: Study finds low use of steganography on the web
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 00:50:06 -0400
Declan -
Thought this might be interest to your readers,
especially considering the currrent debate in Congress
to outlaw encryption and steganography products.
In contrast to earlier reports from USA Today that Bin
Laden was using steganography, a technique that allows the
user to concel a message in a document or image, to conceal maps
and secret messages a new study from the University of Michigan finds
no widespread use of steganography on the web.
Of course, they only searched 2 million images on Ebay. They
are going to conduct a similar search on USENET next. I'm
waiting for someone to convert this into a distibuted computing
project like 'SETI_at_home' but "hunt-bin-laden_at_home" :)
Possible, but lots of legal and practical questions to be
answered.
Full study is here:
http://www.citi.umich.edu/techreports/reports/citi-tr-01-11.pdf
USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm
-Greg Schnippel
------------------------------------------------------
New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991340
Massive search reveals no secret code in web images
15:56 25 September 01
Will Knight
New research indicates that terrorists are not using advanced computer tools
to hide messages in innocuous-looking web images.
...
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Received on Sep 26 2001
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