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Backbone Security

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Welcome to the Steganography Analysis and Research Center

A Backbone Security Center of Excellence

News

SARC Press Releases:

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04/30/2008: SARC Releases Expanded Steganography Hash Set
02/05/2008: SARC Releases Expanded Steganography Hash Set
02/04/2008: Digital Forensic Tool Passes DCCI Test
02/01/2008: Backbone Announces Partnership with ADF Solutions, Inc.
01/14/2008: Enhanced Steganography Detection Tool Available
02/26/2007: SARC Releases Updated Steganography Application Hash Set
02/26/2007: SARC Releases Enhanced Digital Steganography Detection Tool
02/26/2007: Enhanced Tool to Detect Insider Use of Steganography Now Available
02/22/2007: Steganalysis Tools Now Available on DOD EMALL
11/06/2006: Backbone Security Announces the World's First Real-Time Steganalysis Capability
08/21/2006: Backbone Security Releases Update to Steganalysis Tools
08/10/2006: Backbone Security's SARC enters DoD Cyber Crime Challenge
02/13/2006: Backbone Security Releases Update to Steganography Hash Set
09/08/2005: Grant Backs Fairmont Technology Project
02/12/2004: High-Tech Researchers Looking to Uncover Hidden Criminal Data


Media Spotlight:

In an interview at the 2008 Computer Forensics Show, James Wingate talks about the state-of-the-art steganalysis products provided by the SARC.
Click here to watch this video. (YouTube)

In an interview at the 2006 Techno Forensics Conference, James Wingate talks about the current threat of steganography.
Click here to watch this video. (Windows Media Format)

In an interview at the 2006 Techno Security Conference, Chad W. Davis answers questions about emerging trends in IT security.
Click here to watch this video. (Windows Media Format)


Steganography in the News:

05/30/2008: Secret messages could be hidden in net phone calls - TMCnet.com
"The next time your internet (VoIP) phone call sounds a bit fuzzy, it might not be your ISP that's to blame. Someone could be trying to squeeze a secret message between the packets of data carrying the caller's voice."
05/05/2008: When terrorism hits cyberspace - MSN Technology
"Steganography is the technique to fully hide actual content within legitimate or legitimate-looking) data. Terrorists can easily hide vital and sensitive communications by mixing it with large amounts of public data. Seemingly normal files can have embedded secret message data that will appear usual to an innocent observer. An example is hiding messages within the noise of a digital image, in which some bits that make up the image are used to encode a secret message without altering the image significantly. The technology has now expanded to nearly all kinds of file including audio and video recordings. The expertise to search through thousands of files filtering through the Internet every second for such encoding is at present beyond the resources of any government."
10/12/2007: CA Internet Security Report Forecasts Top Online Threats for 2008 - CA.com
Number 2: "Smarter malware: There are new levels of sophistication in malware. Malware will target virtualized computers, and increasing use of obfuscation techniques to hide in plain sight, including steganography and encryptions, will help criminals conceal their activities."
10/12/2007: Data leak: Cyber sherlocks outwit hackers - The Economic Times
"This was a clear cut case of an insider fishing for confidential data. He used a technique called ‘steganography’ which enabled him to encrypt and send data inside music and picture files using third-party steganography software. The information was locked using a password and the person receiving the data used the same password to decrypt the information. This person used virtual machine software for this task to install a totally new Operating System within the existing OS and then the steganography software did the trick. He was caught after an elaborate investigation process."
08/21/2007: Al-Qaida spreads across the Web - NBC Nightly News
"Internet jihadists hide their messages with pirated encryption software and steganography, a technology that embeds messages into photographs making them undetectable."
08/16/2007: Anti-Forensic Methods Used by Jihadist Web Sites - eSecurity Planet
"In the February, 2007 edition of Technical Mujahid is an article that encourages extremists to download a copy of the software program Secrets of the Mujahideen. Secrets is an encryption software application which can hide data between the pixels of an image, and then compress the file in an attempt to defeat steganalysis. The article provides a detailed example of how 20 messages can be hidden in a 100 x 50 pixel picture. Dr. Chen, director of the Artificial Intelligence lab at the University of Arizona, has confirmed to me that steganography is being used by some of the extremist Web sites that they monitor, although an analysis on its use hasn’t been done yet."
07/14/2007: Terror flows out of hi-tech boom law & order - The Hindu
"Another technique employed by terrorists is steganography that is used to embed messages in pictures and audio files. Creating further problems for enforcement agencies, they send these files as spam (messages sent in bulk but not directed to any particular person). 'The message reaches a wide number of people, among whom are the intended recipients,' says the police officer. This ensures that surveillance agencies remain oblivious about the source and destination besides the content of the message."
07/11/2007: Glasgow probe shows how Web links terror worldwide - IBNLive
"Apart from social messaging services and private chat rooms, high tech methods which are difficult to detect include steganography, a method of hiding messages in images, video and audio files which only the intended recipient can decode."
07/10/2007: New-age terrorist is a techie to boot - The Times of India
"Steganography involves writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message. In such cases, the existence of the message is not disguised, but the content is obscured."
02/21/2007: Sharp Rise in Cyber Crimes Foreseen - Business Recorder
"The powerful technologies that have done so much to improve the quality of our lives are also being used by some of the worst elements of our society; small time criminals who can take on a whole new persona on the internet; malcontents who can find like-minded hate groups, scam artists who think they can escape detection in the anonymity of the web; terrorist who use steganography to communicate by encrypting messages into image files inaccessible to all except those who have passwords."
02/15/2007: Hiding messages in plain sight - BBC News
"A technology that can 'hide' information in plain sight on printed images has begun to see the first commercial applications."
01/24/2007: Embedding the evil within - Corrections.com
"'A picture is worth a thousand words,' and in today's high-tech world those words have never been more true, especially for criminals. From terrorists to child pornographers, photos are providing the means by which they establish covert communication. Many of these criminals are experts at steganography."
01/01/2007: StegAlyzerAS and StegalyzerSS - OLETC Today
"Our objective is to provide the computer forensic examiners with a ‘point-click-and-extract’ interface to relieve them of the burden of doing the detailed steganalysis."
10/16/2006: Mumbai police fail to crack July 11 suspects’ mail - Daily News & Analysis
"Investigators have not been able to crack the contents of at least 35 email accounts from which, they believe, coded instructions were sent to the perpetrators of the July 11 blasts by their Lashkar-e-Tayiba bosses in Pakistan. Sources said the instructions, which included maps, photographs, and technical details (how to use explosives and camouflage them), were disguised by means of steganography (the art of hiding messages in graphic files)."
08/01/2006: Steganography for Dummies: The security technique of hiding secrets in plain sight is becoming user friendly. Is that a good thing? - CSO Online
"Let's not kid ourselves. Terrorists using steganography shouldn't be considered a shocking conclusion or written off as sensationalist conspiracy theory. We should, in fact, assume they're using it. And the more user-friendly the technology becomes, the more users it will attract, including terrorists, drug syndicates, pornographers, the mafia and anyone else with something to hide. New steganography software gives them an easy, highly secure way to hide it."
11/04/2005: London police take advanced approach to fighting crime - InterGovWorld.com
"Assistant commissioner at the Met Police, Andy Hayman, has claimed the extra time is needed in order to make sure that all the evidence from a seized PC is located before someone is released. 'It could be two to three weeks depending upon the sophistication of the means used to hide it, steganography for example.' A Met spokesperson confirmed to us that in some terrorism cases, they were facing this exact issue."
06/10/2002: Steganography: Hidden Data - Computerworld
"An engineering firm suspected that an insider was transmitting valuable intellectual property out of its network. After checking mail logs, investigators found the smoking gun: two e-mails with harmless-looking image attachments sent by an engineer. Turns out, the images were hiding two of the company's most precious engineering specifications. The technique used to hide the specifications inside image files is a high-tech version of a process called steganography."
03/07/2002: Global raid breaks advanced internet child porn group - OUT-LAW News
"'Operation Twins' was the result of a 12 month investigation by law enforcement authorities in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the US and the UK. The operation focused on a criminal organisation called the 'Shadowz Brotherhood,' whose activities included the production and distribution of child pornography and real-time abuse of children. The group used encryption and also steganography, the practice of hiding of one file within another for extraction by the intended recipient."


Steganography Articles:

08/01/2001: National Infrastructure Protection Center
Steganography: Implications for Law Enforcement and Counterterrorism
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