Steganography - Hiding a secret message inside an innocent-looking message

[StefanX]

"Steganography" is the practice of embedding a secret message inside another, innocent-looking message -- thereby hiding the fact that communication is even taking place.

Why am I mentioning this now? Oh, I don't know... thought it could be interesting. While Georgie Boy and the NSA spend billions of dollars breaking the law and snooping into the emails and phone calls of every American citizen, we can rest assured that the Bad Guys can continue to communicate "under the radar" using the latest steganography software.



Below are some examples of steganography programs. Some of them are free. Try the demo on the first one listed below -- SPAM MIMIC -- it takes your super-secret message and converts it into an annoying (but innocent-looking) piece of spam!

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http://www.spammimic.com/

There are terrific tools (like PGP and GPG) for encrypting your mail. If somebody along the way looks at the mail they can't understand it. But they do know you are sending encrypted mail to your pal.

The answer: encode your message into something innocent-looking.

Your messages will be safe and nobody will know they're encrypted!

There's a demo on this site you can try out. Type in your secret message -- click ENCODE -- and your message will turn into innocent-looking spam! Click DECODE and the spam will turn back into your original message.

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http://www.invisiblesecrets.com/hide-files.html

"Hide files in five innocent looking files types: JPEG, PNG, BMP, HTML and WAV. To encrypt and hide files in a carrier file you can use the wizard which will guide you step-by-step through the process."

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http://www.steganos.com/?content=products_sss&command=features&feature=steganography

"Secret data is enbedded in BMPs or WAVs. You see and hear no difference."

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http://steghide.sourceforge.net/

Steghide: (open-source) "Steghide is a steganography program that is able to hide data in various kinds of image- and audio-files. The color- respectivly sample-frequencies are not changed thus making the embedding resistant against first-order statistical tests."

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If Georgie Boy couldn't detect the message "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside US" printed in bold capital letters on his August 6 Presidential Daily Brief, ya think he'll be able to spot the secret message embedded (using White Noise Storm) in one of these pictures of William Shakespeare?



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Some articles on Steganography:

http://plus.maths.org/issue21/features/singh/
"I could send you send you a JPEG, a picture of my trip to Australia on holiday, but hidden in that picture, hidden in the digital information, would be a message."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41658,00.html
The technique, known as steganography, is the practice of embedding secret messages in other messages -- in a way that prevents an observer from learning that anything unusual is taking place.