wiley - hiding in plain sight - the art of covert communication - 2003

[...]... levels of risk and act accordingly In the final analysis, security is all about mitigating and minimizing risk SECURITY BY INTIMIDATION I was presenting at a conference recently and talking about the problem of users being alert to the dangers of opening unexpected email attachments I was suggesting some solutions, and the attendees were poking holes in them because there is no perfect solution Then... and valleys in the data, it suggests there might be hidden images in there.” It was all Greek to Sam, but the news that the guy might be on to something was welcome Sam himself had drawn a blank looking through the colonel’s papers The computer guy started explaining what he was doing “I’m using this program called S-Tools, Cryptography Explained and a few other programs I’m writing on the fly, to... version of the same image Today steganography has come into its own on the Internet Used for transmitting data as well as for hiding trademarks in images and music (called digital watermarking), electronic steganography may ironically be one of the last bastions of information privacy in our world today Where Is It Going? Today software programs used for data hiding are available for free across the Internet... will be their last in- person contact They must come up with a plan for safely exchanging information going forward Covert Communication: It’s All Around You Because both men have an interest in architecture, they decide on a pattern of communication that will misdirect those observing them Every week they will send unencrypted messages to each other containing pictures of various buildings and notes about... censorship of the Internet The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a more mainstream group at the forefront of protecting individuals’ rights to privacy and information online The EFF supports legislation that requires companies to alert customers buying CDs and other media when copyright protection is built in for example, in the form of digital watermarks that may make the products unusable in certain circumstances... Mike Continuous thanks to Sid Martin and Ralph Palmieri for understanding the importance of research and for allowing creative minds to think of solutions to complex technical problems There are also my friends like Gary Jackson, Marc Maloof, and the great people at SANS who give constant insight and advice In terms of continuing this research and creating an environment for creative learning, I thank... stashed something incriminating on his home computer When Al, the computer guy, and his assistant arrived, they all headed over to the colonel’s quarters One of the best parts of Sam’s job was being able to tell a ranking officer to sit down and shut up Of course, he was more polite than that, but that’s what it came to The colonel sat in a chair on the front porch, definitely not happy having to sit... are ever in Washington, D.C., stop by the newly opened Spy Museum I was amazed as I walked through and saw example after example of stego in action xvii xviii Introduction What’s Covered in This Book Combining the art of steganography with the powers of computers, networks, and the Internet has brought this method of hiding information to a whole new level This book is meant to give you a crash introduction... And there’s definitely stuff here But what I’ve found so far is encrypted—that means it’s kind of in code and we need a key to break it.” Sam could hear the frustration in the guy’s voice: They were so near, but without a key, the hidden information would stay hidden They were just discussing whether the existence of hidden data could be used in court to show some kind of covert activity, when they... correlating this increase in encrypted messages with world events, they can begin to draw some conclusions But is inference of such activity enough? NOTICING PATTERNS It’s late 1997 Two terrorists known only as F1 and F2 sit together in the corner of a small pub in a town somewhere in central Germany They seldom meet in person, and now that they are under surveillance by the CIA, they know this will be their . addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 57 2-3 447, fax (317) 57 2-4 447, E-mail: permcoordinator @wiley. com. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer. appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data: ISBN: 0-4 7 1-4 444 9-9 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This. Techniques 157 Hiding in an Attachment 157 Hiding Data in an Email Attachment 157 Transmitting Hidden Data with FTP 157 Posting Stego to a Web Site 158 Hiding in a Transmission 158 Using Invisible