[107703] in Cypherpunks
Re: Idea: steganographic spam
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Petro)
Thu Jan 21 15:10:21 1999
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.96.990121193108.11212E-100000@zor.hut.fi>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 13:32:56 -0500
To: Jukka E Isosaari <jei@zor.hut.fi>, cypherpunks@toad.com
From: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
Reply-To: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
At 12:46 PM -0500 1/21/99, Jukka E Isosaari wrote:
>..
> Steganography is the art of making messages slip by unnoticed, as
> distinct from cryptography, which is the art of making messages
> unintelligible. With computers, this is done by taking a mass of
> digitized analog data and altering insignificant bits, or by using
> different ways of encoding or packing the same data.
>..
>
>Instead of disguising messages in text (assuming that's the only
>available format) as errors, would it not be neat if you could send
>steganographic messages disguised as spam to your friends? That would
>give a much better information density, better cover and plausible
>denial. They would most likely be totally ignored by anyone looking
>for signs of use of cryptograpy. And most spam is already
>unintelligible to begin with. :-)
One problem is that in order to make it look plausable, you'd
actually have to spam a bunch of people with the same message.
Another possibility is those stupid "Good Times" virus messages
that every clueless idiot seems to think we need to know about, or the
latest joke that has been forwarded thru 47 different people with the
headers still attached. As much unintelligiblity in those as in the spam.
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather na=EFve, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html
Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent. Inc.::petro@playboy.com
