Hiding (and Seeking) Messages on the Web

[Peter Gutmann]

>Hiding (and Seeking) Messages on the Web
>Al Qaeda uses the Web as a communications network
>
>June 17 issue -  One day last October, an intelligence-community analyst
>noticed something strange about a radical Islamist Web site she had been
>monitoring for several months. A previously open, innocuous part of the site
>was suddenly blocked. She checked her notes, found the old address for the
>link and typed it in-to find an otherwise empty page commanding in Arabic,
>MISSIONARIES ATTACK!
>
>OTHER "HIDDEN" PAGES ON the site included seemingly nonsensical phrases and
>quotations from the Qur'an-coded instructions for Qaeda operatives and their
>supporters. U.S. intelligence discovered Al Qaeda uses the Web as a
>communications network. Analysts believe Al Qaeda uses prearranged phrases and
>symbols to direct its agents. An icon of an AK-47 can appear next to a photo
>of Osama bin Laden facing one direction one day, and another direction the
>next. Colors of icons can change as well. Messages can be hidden on pages
>inside sites with no links to them, or placed openly in chat rooms. The
>messages and patterns of symbols are given to analysts at the CIA and National
>Security Agency to decipher.

Does anyone know what sort of hidden terrorist messages Microsoft are
communicating?  Their web pages appear and disappear, and contain nonsensical
phrases and quotations from the Windows documentation.  A Windows icon can
appear in one location one day, and another location the next.  Colours of
icons can change as well.  Messages can be hidden on pages inside Microsoft
sites with no links to them, or placed openly in .HLP files in the Windows
system directory.  The messages and patterns of symbols are given to sysadmins
and programmers to decipher.

Peter.

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