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2004-07-21 Home Front: WoT

Osama bin Laden's videotape Secret" Encryption Found "

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Posted by Dutchgeek 2004-07-21 08:17|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Anybody read the subscribers-only report on this site about "losing a city"? We supposedly recently foiled a nuke attack. I don't buy it, but am still curious about what the article says.

Posted by virginian 2004-07-21 9:14:08 AM|| 2004-07-21 9:14:08 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 How reliable is this site? I've looked it over before but it's always seemed a little odd to me. Kind of like Debka on booze binge or something.

Posted by Laurence of the Rats 2004-07-21 9:31:15 AM|| [http://www.punictreachery.com/] 2004-07-21 9:31:15 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 No comment or info on this site's reliability.

However, the Islamacist networks have been using steganography (embedding hidden info in digitized pictures, music and video) for several years, courtesy of tools available from hacker bulletin boards if you know where to look and can get hold of a password.

The way steganography works is that slight modifications are made to the numbers that represent colored dots in the pictures. The human eye won't notice the slightly different look of the picture, but someone who knows they're there can use the same or another steganography tool to read the code.

In this case, the code that NIN claims to have found does look like a digital encryption key, needed to decrypt other info (like attack or coordination instructions) sent by another file. This is a more sophisticated use of steganography, as anyone who intercepts the code still needs the other file to find out just what was being communicated.

Steganography and similar technologies have become an operational reality in the GWOT .....

Posted by rkb 2004-07-21 9:53:02 AM|| 2004-07-21 9:53:02 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 If anyone does get the report, please print it. I too would be interested in this.

How reliable is this site? I'm not sure yet. They were the first to report that the NYC Times Square backpack bomb was not filled with fireworks, (first report on news). There were right on the contents of it, pipebomb, ball bearings, gun powder residue.

Posted by jawa 2004-07-21 10:11:21 AM|| 2004-07-21 10:11:21 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 My gut instinct is the terrorists are a lot less advanced in this sort of thing than we give them credit for. Pre-9/11 Atta threatened to cut a government officials throat, hardly laying low, hardly the brainiac, yet he led the 9/11 attacks.

The Soviets used all sorts of encryption. They were advanced. My guess is the Jihadists work in four ways: (1) Word of mouth (2) Pre arranged code words on Al Queda broadcasts (3) bulletan boards, and email accounts (email drafts are not sent, but accessed by other members) (4) Not at all, cells are now operating independently because Al Queda is headless.

Personally I'm betting on a combination but primarily (4) at this point.

Posted by yank 2004-07-21 10:54:20 AM|| [politicaljunky.blogspot.com] 2004-07-21 10:54:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 "Debka on a booze binge" LOL!!!

Posted by danking70 2004-07-21 1:19:29 PM|| 2004-07-21 1:19:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Somewhere within the NSA there must be a gallery of stegged jihadi photos. I wonder what kind of photos the boyz swap. Tourist pix of prominent landmarks? wildlife photos? kiddie porn?

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2004-07-21 1:50:18 PM|| 2004-07-21 1:50:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 I will put out a call for agent A.L. Chappeau. He/she is usually way ahead of the Debka/Idaho strategists.

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-21 2:29:07 PM|| 2004-07-21 2:29:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Yank, I taught the required freshman IT class at West Point for several years and all my cadets got a chance to play with steganography tools.

Didn't get to take them with LOL but they're not hard to find. Notice the al-Q types don't need to be able to MAKE them, just to USE a mouse and standard Windows interface.

The encryption in question would be for electronic transfer or for documents on a CD-ROM. No sophistication needed, standard public key cryptography built into Windows ... the stuff that gets applied to your credit card when you shop at Amazon.

There have been organized hacker rings attacking US and Israeli systems for years. Not hard to imagine a member or two helping the bros along.

Posted by rkb 2004-07-21 8:19:43 PM|| 2004-07-21 8:19:43 PM|| Front Page Top

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