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PRESS RELEASE

February 13, 2006

FAIRMONT, WV - Backbone Security's Steganography Analysis and Research Center (SARC) has released version 2.0 of the Steganography Application Fingerprint Database (SAFDB) that can be used to detect the use of information-hiding applications to hide images of child pornography inside of other innocent looking images or to conceal evidence of other types of criminal activity.

Steganography comes from the Greek words "steganos" which means "covered" and "graphy" which means "writing." Thus, steganography literally means "covered writing." Steganography applications can be used to hide information inside of another digital file and are thus often referred to as information hiding applications.

Criminals can use these applications to conceal evidence of their criminal activity. Producers and distributors of child pornography are known to be using steganography applications to distribute the contraband material across the Internet.

The SARC was established in June, 2004, to create a national repository of steganography applications and fingerprints, i.e. hash values that could be consulted by Federal, state, and local law enforcement; intelligence community; and private sector investigators when conducting forensic analysis of a seized computer. A hash value is a numeric representation of a file computed with a complex mathematical algorithm that essentially yields the fingerprint of the file.

Version 2.0 of SAFDB contains four different hash values for every file, also called an artifact, associated with 250 steganography applications obtained as freeware or shareware from the Internet or, in some cases, purchased as a commercially licensed product. The database contains hash values computed with the CRC-32, MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 algorithms. Future releases of SAFDB will contain hash values of all the artifacts associated with additional steganography applications.

A license to SAFDB is provided free of charge to qualifying law enforcement, government, and intelligence agencies. Please visit http://www.sarc-wv.com for further information on registering for a free license to the database.

In addition to SAFDB, the SARC has also developed tools to scan for artifacts and signatures of steganography applications. A signature is a unique hexadecimal byte pattern left in carrier files after embedding a hidden message or image.

About Backbone Security – Backbone is a full-service IT security company specializing in vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and real-time intrusion monitoring. Backbone is a Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard Approved Scanning Vendor and offers a One-Stop Scanning Solution for compliance with PCI-DSS scanning requirements.

About the SARC - The SARC is a Center of Excellence in Steganography Research and Development within Backbone and is focused on providing a national repository of digital steganography applications, fingerprints, and signatures and developing state-of-the art tools for detecting and extracting information hidden with digital steganography applications.