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Thread: Interpol Successfully Unblurs Image of Sexual Predator

  1. #1
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    Interpol Successfully Unblurs Image of Sexual Predator

    I'm not sure where this post goes, so mods, if this isn't the right forum, please move the thread.

    A man suspected of sexually abusing children was publicly unmasked last Monday when Interpol successfully unscrambled images of his face. Crops of the scrambled and unscrambled images were posted to Interpol’s website, along with a public plea for help, as all police efforts at identifying him thus far have failed.

    Working from the original images found on the internet, specialists from the Bundeskriminalamt, or Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office were able to successfully reverse what appears to be Photoshop’s twirl distortion tool, using unspecified methods. “Techniques are always developing. What is impossible today is possible tomorrow,” said Anders Persson, the Swedish police officer in charge of overseeing Interpol’s child abuse image database.
    Check out the image -
    http://altblog.searix.net/files/unblur.jpg

    And the full story -
    http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=9228
    Alt3rn4t|v3
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  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi alt3rn4tiv3,

    I think you have chosen the right forum. You are linking to a news article, and these links tend to expire fairly rapidly, as opposed to those in other forums.

    It reminds me of something I read years ago about a Japanese guy who was arrested for developing a masking tool that apparently became popular with Japanese pr0n sites. Unfortunately, I don't know what the outcome of the case was

    EDIT: Well, the download seems to work, so I guess the guy must have gotten away with it?

    http://homepage3.nifty.com/furumizo/gmaskd_e.htm

    For those who like playing with things

    EDIT#2:

    Even better, here is his homepage with the latest version (should also work with Vista), and one for you Linux users

    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://village.infoweb.ne.jp/~fwga3304/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfurumizo%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GBfficial%26hs%3DVBD%26sa%3DG
    Last edited by nihil; October 10th, 2007 at 10:44 AM.

  3. #3
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    In any case that the link expires, I have a permalink on my blog -
    http://altblog.searix.net/index.php/...urs_image_of_s
    (I hope that doesn't count as advertising)

    Thanks for sharing the link.
    As a steganography enthusiast, I wonder why I did not hear about that case.
    Alt3rn4t|v3
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  4. #4
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    OK, now that we have a permanent link to the actual subject matter, I will move the thread into cryptography and steganography.

    The case I was referring to was probably around 1999/2000. As I recall the issue in the technical media wasn't on the technology itself, but on whether an application developer could be held responsible for the abuse of his product by third parties over whom he had no control.

    Around that time there was a similar discussion about publishing malware code.

    Now, as far as I am aware, that application was not intentionally designed for use in pr0n distribution, and that was more or less what the legal battle was about. That is probably why it did not come to your attention?

    Incidentally, there was a bit on BBC TV last night about an ongoing terrorist trial in the UK. They showed some still photographs and had obviously used the software that I linked to, as a tool to obscure the people's faces

    For those interested in steganography, here is an interesting site with a free detection tool:

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

  5. #5
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    Hehe. Nope, the reason is because I was 9 / 10 years old when it occurred =P
    Again, nice link there.
    Those interested in steganography might want to try the link in my signature (HackQuest), TheBlackSheep (http://www.bright-shadows.net) amongst other challenge sites.

    A friend of mine has also developed a simple steganalysis tool, named after a stegano challenge submitter on TheBlackSheep called Bara. The tool's name is SteganaBara - http://www.freewebs.com/quangntenemy...teganabara.jar
    (Yes, he's a Java freak )
    Alt3rn4t|v3
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  6. #6
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi there Alternative,

    Hehe. Nope, the reason is because I was 9 / 10 years old when it occurred =P
    Good to know that an "old fart" like myself still has a few minor uses

    It is an interesting subject, that I first got into back in about '95. I have no real use for it, nor do any of my clients, but I believe in "academic curiosity"

    I do hope that you will continue to contribute in this area (and anywhere else ) as it is a subject worthy of more exposure IMHO. I tend to cross-relate it with forensics as it goes.

    Cheers

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