Thursday, February 11, 2010

Internet Steganography - Data Under the Radar

7:00 p.m., Shanghai
An employee of an electronic equipment factory uploads a music file to an online file-sharing site. Hidden in the MP3 file (Michael Jackson's album Thriller) are schematics of a new mobile phone that will carry the brand of a large American company. Once the employee's Taiwanese collaborators download the file, they start manufacturing counterfeit mobile phones essentially identical to the original—even before the American company can get its version into stores.

3:30 p.m., somewhere in Afghanistan
A terrorist hunted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation posts an excerpt from the motion picture High School Musical Three: Senior Year on Facebook. Inside are hidden instructions for a bomb attack on a commuter rail line in southern Europe. Later that day, terrorists based in Athens follow the instructions to plan a rush hour attack that kills hundreds of people.

4:00 a.m., Malibu, Calif.
A very famous actor (VFA) has a brief conversation with a well-known director (WKD) over Skype, an application that lets them make free voice calls over the Internet. They discuss the medical problems of VFA's cat in great detail. When the conversation is over, WKD's computer has a sleazy new addition—in a folder on his desktop, there is a picture of a nude teenager, along with her mobile number and the date and time at which WKD will meet her at VFA's pool party for a photo session.

What all these scenarios have in common is an information-smuggling technique called steganography—the communication of secret messages inside a perfectly innocent carrier... (more)