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Are Terrorists Really Using eBay To Hide Messages?

Overhype

from the maybe-possibly dept

Wed, Jul 17th 2002 1:52am — Mike Masnick
There's been quite a debate raging lately over the question of whether or not terrorists are passing hidden messages encrypted into photos on eBay auctions. Claims to that effect were made soon after September 11th, but many experts considered the claims to be pure hype. An attempt to find any such images turned up none. Now, for no clear reason, a USA Today reporter has re-reported the same claims, as if they were definitely true. But, many people still think it's crap. There's certainly no evidence, and many of the reporter's claims don't really add up. eBay, for instance claims that they never spoke to the reporter. However, none of this means that people aren't using images on eBay to pass messages. In general, it still sounds a bit far-fetched to me, but I'm certainly not an expert.
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11 Comments

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  • identicon
    Michael Lott, 17 Jul 2002 @ 5:00am

    Re: terrorists using ebay pics to pass messages

    This is a highly unlikely scenario. Granted, the capability is there to encrypt a message and "hide" it in a picture, but why do it on eBay, where the whole world has access to it? That just doesn't make any sense. No, I would imagine if they are using this kind of technology, then they are doing it in a much lower scale, less visible way.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    1 -> 7, 17 Jul 2002 @ 5:04am

    No Subject Given

    Anything the government has wanted strict control over but never had the constitutional right to do so with will now be involved in some way or another with terrorism ... we must give them control over everything or else the terrorists will win! lol

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      thecaptain, 17 Jul 2002 @ 5:57am

      Re: No Subject Given

      and don't forget this one:

      "Think of the children!!!"

      Combine the two and we MUST do what they say.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jared, 17 Jul 2002 @ 8:09am

    WWWWWH

    The reason is simple: Sometimes the best place to hide a letter is on the mantle. Also, eBay is a dependable replicated server system. Its accessable from anywhere, its dependable and finding encrypted traffic would be like a needle in a haystack. Any server that fits this profile is useable like this. But the practice of encrypting messages within image data (steganography) has an obvious tell. You have to use a format such as BMP, TIFF or GIF. Compressed image formats like JPG destroy the encryption and are ineligable for coding. Note that these aren't the most popular file formats and their use should stand out to anyone.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Joe Schmoe, 17 Jul 2002 @ 8:39am

      Re: WWWWWH

      Unless the message encoding was integral to the jpeg compression alg's...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 17 Jul 2002 @ 8:58am

    No Subject Given

    Honestly, all this Stego and Encryption FUD is a bunch of hooey. They could have, and probably, communicated openly and simply amoungst themselves. Let's face it - you can drop a message in plain english on a back of a postcard and if no one pays attention to it (and at the time no one had any reason to) then obscurity is a non issue.

    In fact, this scenario is beautiful in it's simplicity. Any large landmark [read target] in this country has a postcard with its' picture on it. One would not even have to name the said target - just send a postcard of "it" with a keyworded message.

    In all of this after analysis though, and I'll bring it up here should someone know, the one thing that I am left with curiousity is - why was the date of 9-11 chosen? Everyone went nuts fearing an attack on July 4th this past month because of the association to our holiday and its' significance, but that was a date that is signficant to "us". What about 9-11 was significant to "them"?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jared, 17 Jul 2002 @ 9:30am

      Re: No Subject Given

      1. They were ready
      2. Airlines had 3 continent-crossing aircraft departing from the appropriate cities.
      3. There is no #3

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2002 @ 4:26pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      September 11, 1990 was when Bush Sr. announced the Gulf war ... so its meaning to them was the date when the US invaded their "holy" lands.

      "On September 11, 1990 President George Bush (Sr.) made a dramatic speech to Congress, outlining the US position in the Kuwait crisis, and the preliminary steps the US was taking towards the Gulf War."

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        mullah, 18 Jul 2002 @ 1:41am

        Re: No Subject Given

        There are also some slightly obscure (to us) Moslem anniversaries on Sept 11th.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Patryck, 11 Feb 2003 @ 5:56pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      All this Stego stuff isn't crap.
      Encrypting messages and hiding them into files exists, and there are an unlimited of ways to do this.
      You can encrypt messages into mp3s, images, and other files that people wouldn't even think possible. You can even use bibles, government websites like the CIA and NSA to send Cyphirs accross the world wide web to anyone and no one would even know it.


      As for 911, maybe it's the 911 emergency number? maybe it's the significane to the date of military operations in Iraq during the gulf war? or a day of vengence? 911, alot of military actions took place on those days, such as the coup de'etat Chile september 11 1973.

      And why would I want to save a cookie?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 18 Jul 2002 @ 7:59am

    Thanks...

    ...for this answer/insight.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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