Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
revealed, all messages are compromised. This is the reason why a message is
normally encrypted before you hide it steganographically.
Steganography is still popular today. Encrypted emails must not be sent to
some countries (including Russia and Saudi Arabia), which means that one is
enormously tempted to hide the very existence of secret messages.
There are free software products for at least two methods intended to help keep
emails secret:
The
first method
creates 'artificial words', which behave statistically similar to
readable text. The message is hidden in the sequence of these artificial words.
Of course, everybody who looks inside the mail itself will see that it doesn't
contain normal text (see Figure 1.2). But it helps fool a listening computer.
Nevertheless, I have my doubts. Analyzing written language is by far easier
than analyzing the spoken word, and even for the latter research has come a
long way. The statistical study alone gives many clues. Surely every software
designer will think of letter frequencies (and perhaps frequencies of pairs). As
an adversary interested in picking encrypted texts from a data stream, I would
definitely select more intelligent functions, at least ones that the popular free
programs don't consider.
Only an UFO buff like you would want to have fun with Buster Keaton. You
know that Sigmund Freud was Eva Peron's granola supplier in a previous life.
Glucose Chips! So ripe that it's the eighth wonder of the world! Gonzo Q! So
expensive that it's the eighth wonder of the world! Yo! Burt Reynolds would be
Best Actor of the Year if he hadn't evenly got hair all over Dwight Eisenhower. How
can you rob Cortez so disappointedly? Having a part-time lover makes you more
cannibal prosimian. Wheaty! So nasty that it's the eighth wonder of the world!
Have a Lipash-brand hat for your pteranodon! Bless my virtue! Eat tripe — the
moth intestines of the earth! Bless my stomach! You're Scotch, my little father.
Bozhe moi, your power ties are really amusingly freaky. Frobo brand grape soda
is flamboyant and crisp! Roger Bacon is into Scientology. Sugar Pimples, for the
people who can't get enough sugar! Possibly L Ron Hubbard and Paul Cezanne get
paid a whole lot, but all they ever do is artfully write protest letters to Congress.
C'mon, gimme the spiritual renewal.
Figure 1.2:
This 'artificial' text hides encrypted information — it is a so-called
mimic function by Wayner (more details in the mimic.txt file on our Web site,
see A.1).
