newcomer steg query

hope this hasn't been asked b4 -

I've read about steg. Not questioning the math, ok. But has anyone heard of any real, non-trivial examples of crooks, terrorists etc actually using steg?

It's great technique for a spy novel. but really in life?

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/02/41658


That is the closest I could find. Since it is not easily detectable I do not think it would be common for some one to find such evidence - ever. I think in most cases there was only suspicion of its use.

Hello dinee, and welcome to AO,

I don't know of any IRL examples but I am not sure where you are coming from with your question.

I do have some software that detects it, and I will look for the link if you respond with an affirmative.............

I am looking from the tekkie side here :D like you might want to get a steggie tool then try my tool to crack it?

If your question is purely historical, then I am afraid I don't have any examples.....:mad:

It is an interesting concept and something to is hard to detect.

Nihil, I wouldn't mind a look at that app if you could be so good as to locate it?

Cheers,
Wolfe

I think an app like that is only semi-useful. It can only detect known ways/algos for hiding things. If some one really wanted to hide something like that they would develop their own way of hiding it..

I would encrypt it before hiding it too.

True. Encrypted with a unique method = good luck finding it.

Personally I still have not found a practical use for stego. Maybe I am not sketchy enough :-p

The problem with worrying about hidden messages is that you can see them anywhere. Just like a brute force decryption can yield every possible message, you can find SOME way of only using certain letters/words of any legitimate document and making it into a message to be worried about. A la "A beautiful mind".

Only the government would worry about such a thing :-p

Hi Wolfe,

The detection tool is here:

http://www.outguess.org/detection.php

:)

Cheers nihil.

Hey, no problems Wolfe,

I messed with that stuff a few years back?:D

I have never done anything naughty except in my own home...... OK once I had to deploy a little software tweak and I didn't have the tool or the budget........ so I hacked a virus..........:rolleyes:

My director was very sympathetic.............. an American Lady :)

I took a class on it. Apparently it's big for transferring child pornography. My professor helped the FBI out with detecting it. Not the nicest real life use, but it's an example.

edit:
I don't know why I only thought of the negative, but another big up and coming use for steganography is watermarking. Last I heard they didn't have a technique reliable enough to hold up in court yet, but that was a while back. I should check out my notes and I'd probably find lots of real life uses for it.

yeah, the theory is that all these prerelease screener dvds that they release have something stupid like "on frame 2,000, pixel 25 is red not blue". With a different change for each disc they press. Then they can browse the torrent sites and kazaa etc and when they find an illegal copy of the movie they can look for the changed pixel and say "person X ripped this disc and released it on the net" then go kick their ass.