From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Wed Oct 10 2001 - 10:02:33 MDT
UK firm decodes 'bin Laden's messages' on internet
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_419821.html
A UK communications firm has unearthed coded messages on the Internet which
may be linked to Osama bin Laden.
Glasgow-based Iomart has been helping US investigators since the terror
atrocities last month.
The company has been using sophisticated software to search the net for
so-called steganography, the system of hiding messages inside electronic
images and music files.
The system of encrypting text on the Internet is thought to be used by bin
Laden and his associates as a means of communication, according to Iomart.
In recent weeks, Iomart experts have unearthed hundreds of files, some of them
containing Arabic text and dates which have been passed on to investigators.
Using a vast database of information on the "DNA" or electronic make-up of
millions of inappropriate images - much of it pornography favoured by
terrorists as a vehicle for hidden commands - experts can uncover encrypted
text by breaking down the images.
The system has a database equivalent to the memory of 5,000 personal
computers.
Iomart spokesman Phil Worms said the company was providing its services free
to the US authorities.
He said: "We were approached by the authorities in the United States after the
terrorist attacks to help uncover bin Laden's communications over the
Internet.
"It is an ongoing process and we are still helping track messages which may
have links to al-Qaida."
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:11:18 MST