i've been lurking about and following all of this for some time now, but only just started actually posting. i was just surfing the internet, browsing through free program downloads and i ran across something really interesting: http://lifehacker.com/software/privacy/ ... 230915.php
now, i don't know if this has ever been mentioned/used before, but in the (many) threads i've looked through it never has. Basically it's a program that can embed encrypted information into picture files. There are a couple of programs on the page linked above that can do it in different ways.
this reminds me of the page in the Nancy Drew book where they say "don't overlook small blotches on pieces of paper...they might turn out the be very small words" (or something along those lines)"Unlike encryption, which obscures data in such a way that it's obvious someone's keeping something from listeners-in (and therefore heightens interest in that info), stego techniques offer no hint to the outsider that there's any private data contained within the visible file. Like hiding your valuables from burglars in an empty cereal box in your kitchen cabinet, steganography keeps the existence of the secret item from everyone but those in the know."
also, i know that in previous drops there have been data cards that contained image files. could perhaps the same password that opened the data card file in the first place also reveal steganography within the pictures themselves??
anyway, i don't know if OpAphid/Tachyon/Brother(1003, Sebastian) even know about or use steganography, but i thought i would post this here, because it may be useful on old drop clues, but mostly because i thought it would be nice to have one more weapon in our arsenal of message decoding.
plus, it's just a fun concept.
anyway this message is stupidly long. i hope that all this was at least interesting, if not helpful in some way!
-theslyestfox
