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Home > News > Steganography in the News > 2007

10/12/2007:

CA Internet Security Report Forecasts Top Online Threats for 2008 - CA.com
Number 2: "Smarter malware: There are new levels of sophistication in malware. Malware will target virtualized computers, and increasing use of obfuscation techniques to hide in plain sight, including steganography and encryptions, will help criminals conceal their activities."

10/12/2007:

Data leak: Cyber sherlocks outwit hackers - The Economic Times
"This was a clear cut case of an insider fishing for confidential data. He used a technique called ‘steganography’ which enabled him to encrypt and send data inside music and picture files using third-party steganography software. The information was locked using a password and the person receiving the data used the same password to decrypt the information. This person used virtual machine software for this task to install a totally new Operating System within the existing OS and then the steganography software did the trick. He was caught after an elaborate investigation process."

08/21/2007:

Al-Qaida spreads across the Web - NBC Nightly News
"Internet jihadists hide their messages with pirated encryption software and steganography, a technology that embeds messages into photographs making them undetectable."

08/16/2007:

Anti-Forensic Methods Used by Jihadist Web Sites - eSecurity Planet
"In the February, 2007 edition of Technical Mujahid is an article that encourages extremists to download a copy of the software program Secrets of the Mujahideen. Secrets is an encryption software application which can hide data between the pixels of an image, and then compress the file in an attempt to defeat steganalysis. The article provides a detailed example of how 20 messages can be hidden in a 100 x 50 pixel picture. Dr. Chen, director of the Artificial Intelligence lab at the University of Arizona, has confirmed to me that steganography is being used by some of the extremist Web sites that they monitor, although an analysis on its use hasn’t been done yet."

07/14/2007:

Terror flows out of hi-tech boom law & order - The Hindu
"Another technique employed by terrorists is steganography that is used to embed messages in pictures and audio files. Creating further problems for enforcement agencies, they send these files as spam (messages sent in bulk but not directed to any particular person). 'The message reaches a wide number of people, among whom are the intended recipients,' says the police officer. This ensures that surveillance agencies remain oblivious about the source and destination besides the content of the message."

07/11/2007:

Glasgow probe shows how Web links terror worldwide - IBNLive
"Apart from social messaging services and private chat rooms, high tech methods which are difficult to detect include steganography, a method of hiding messages in images, video and audio files which only the intended recipient can decode."

07/10/2007:

New-age terrorist is a techie to boot - The Times of India
"Steganography involves writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message. In such cases, the existence of the message is not disguised, but the content is obscured."

02/21/2007:

Sharp Rise in Cyber Crimes Foreseen - Business Recorder
"The powerful technologies that have done so much to improve the quality of our lives are also being used by some of the worst elements of our society; small time criminals who can take on a whole new persona on the internet; malcontents who can find like-minded hate groups, scam artists who think they can escape detection in the anonymity of the web; terrorist who use steganography to communicate by encrypting messages into image files inaccessible to all except those who have passwords."

02/15/2007:

Hiding messages in plain sight - BBC News
"A technology that can 'hide' information in plain sight on printed images has begun to see the first commercial applications."

01/24/2007:

Embedding the evil within - Corrections.com
"'A picture is worth a thousand words,' and in today's high-tech world those words have never been more true, especially for criminals. From terrorists to child pornographers, photos are providing the means by which they establish covert communication. Many of these criminals are experts at steganography."

01/01/2007:

StegAlyzerAS and StegalyzerSS - OLETC Today
"Our objective is to provide the computer forensic examiners with a ‘point-click-and-extract’ interface to relieve them of the burden of doing the detailed steganalysis."