Using the TOR software bundle to hide your location on the Web? Using encrypted email or chat?
As you read this, some of the world's intelligence agencies are trying to figure out whether you are doing it, and - worse - assume you are up you to no good.
TheEditor, instead of desperately arguing in yet another iteration of "freedom versus security", decided long ago, meaning a year ago or so, to set up a TOR relay and did some research. A TOR relay is the next level in being suspect, of course, since it behaves like a mini server, making additional bandwidth available to anonymous others. A test of a homemade "hidden service" followed. You can find posts on post subjects on the blog - or just ask your local intelligence service for details.
The black box democracy testing with encrypted cat pictures has one definite result: the cats, as encrypted photos, will live on long after TheEditor has faded away from the ravages of old age.
In the whole "I can't believe it's not mass surveillance" comedy, one set of very handy tools to hide stuff in has not been given very much media coverage.
Have you ever played a Spot the Difference game? It is kind of like that, only a lot more powerful and not for the naked eye.
Steganography
It is the concept and the respective class of tools which allow you to alter the pixels of photos or video to hide information.
Imperceptible to the eye and to everyday software, these tools make minute modifications of byte values which can be read by the recipient of the photo with a copy of the same software.
Heck, the fact that someone saves baby pictures of strangers might be more than the ordinary gross voyeuristic violation - what if the baby pictures had a message inside?
Other than the obvious message, which is: we are all human, we start small, then some of us turn into violent idiots or homicidal maniacs, and the freedom of the rest of us gets curtailed.
Steganography tools used to be a nerd's paradise but, today, there are some good free ones around. We are briefly describing two you might like.
QuickStego
Very easy to use, QuickStego accepts text and puts it into an image. For free. An extended version that costs a bit of money allows to encrypt the text before adding it.
Of course, you can use a PGP tool to encrypt text and then add it in QuickStego.
OpenPuff
Still free, but with a leaning curve compared to QuickStego, OpenPuff is our current personal favorite. It has a multi-password feature and a decoy feature.
Here is a short list of uses for stego tools:
1) Use as a simple, unobtrusive tool to save passwords
There are, of course, the great dedicated tools like Password Safe, but a stego tool is handy. Especially if you are an artist with ten thousand or more photos lying around and do not need a dedicated tool.
2) Watermarking any photos or videos you create
There are standards, such as IPTC and EXCIF information fields, but once a photo is out in the wild, people can and do change these fields. A nice little stego copyright note may make a difference if one of your shoots takes off and you need to supply some proof.
3) Use for information exchange
If encryption tools are too much for you, stego gets you a pretty decent level of privacy. Cybercriminals getting access to your web mail inbox won't figure out that the photo of the classic car hides, for example, a pdf with medical information for an extension of SSI benefits.
Or a power of attorney for a friend so he can close a bank account that turned out to be no longer needed because you fell in love on that European vacation and ain't going back.
4) Hidden art projects
Have you heard of Willard Wigan, an artist who creates micro sculptures? You have never heard of the Golden Harley in the eye of a needle? Go and look at the gallery on his web site right now!
If you fancy using stego tools to create hidden art, let us know what you come up with.
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