J.A. Terranson wrote:
It only makes sense that transmitted stego payloads be simple codewords or signals.
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?
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?
