[145286] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
A real case of malicious steganography in the wild?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Bellovin)
Fri Jul 9 13:00:46 2010
From: Steven Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:33:51 +0300
To: Cryptography List <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
For years, there have been unverifiable statements in the press about =
assorted hostile parties using steganography. There may now be a real =
incident -- or at least, the FBI has stated in court documents that it =
happened.
According to the Justice Department =
(http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/June/10-nsd-753.html), 11 Russian =
nationals have been operating as deep cover agents in the US for many =
years. According to Complaint #2 (link at the bottom of the page), a =
steganographic program was used. Other Internet-era techniques =
allegedly employed include ad hoc WiFi networks. (To be sure, the FBI =
could be wrong. In the past, I've seen them make mistakes about that, =
but they're *much* more experienced now.)
It will be interesting to see how this develops in court.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
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