[145305] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: A real case of malicious steganography in the wild?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jerry Leichter)
Sat Jul 10 13:28:28 2010
Cc: Cryptography List <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
From: Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com>
To: Steven Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
In-Reply-To: <08B78050-840C-494E-B4CB-E126F909BEBC@cs.columbia.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 07:34:29 -0400
On Jun 29, 2010, at 3:33 AM, Steven Bellovin wrote:
> 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.
Unfortunately (from a particular point of view), we'll probably never
find it: It looks as if these agents will be swapped for various
Americans held by the Russians.
-- Jerry
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