Alleged use of stego - a new claim (updated)

Francois Grieu fgrieu at micronet.fr
Sat Oct 13 10:32:27 EDT 2001


On October 10, there has been press reports that a UK company, 
iomart, has unearthed coded messages on the Internet which may be 
linked to Osama bin Laden.

Links:
<http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_419821.html>
<http://www.businessam.co.uk/TodaysPaper/TodaysArticles/0,2910,54947,00.html>
<http://www.businessam.co.uk/TodaysPaper/TodaysArticles/0,2910,55039,00.html>>


Most of the data used by the above articles seem to originate from Mr 
Stephen Whitelaw, depicted as both iomart's chief entrepreneurial 
officer and steganography expert. The report are very vague, the best 
I can get of his claims is
- American intelligence officers asked the firm to scan its 27 
terabytes web database of  "inappropriate" material including 
pornography
- the search has identified hundreds of files, some of them 
containing Arabic text and dates (no claim of stego up to this point)
- the company's scan methods can detect data embedded using steganography
- enciphered data embedded using steganography is attributed to Osama bin Laden
- Osama bin Laden has been using steganography to send covert orders, 
and is still doing it.
The press reports do not depict Stephen Whitelaw as using conditional 
in  stating any of the above.

I am suspicious to the utmost:
- there is no claim the enciphered data was decoded, making it 
unclear how it was determined what it is.
- the whole mess is diluted in promotional talk.
- on October 10, 20:00 GMT, the front page of 
<http://www.iomart.com/> mentioned the discovery, with link to the 
businessam article. On October 11, these are replaced by promotional 
material for an email virus filter.
- An article/biography on Stephen Whitelaw and his former company 
(recently acquired by iomart) leaves me with the impression his talk 
is especialy cheap.
<http://www.computerheadline.com/BusinessMatters/January2001/actistech.asp>


I contacted ananova. Their story was written from information released
by or through the service of the London-based "Press Association"
(one service of which is to relay press releases). None of the two ananova
representative that kindly answered my mail claimed any checking was done.
One admitted "that the company's claims should have been addressed more
critically".


   Francois Grieu



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