Sometimes it ’s coded selective information placed inconspicuously inside a newspaper clause and other time it ’s a note tattooedon the back of a hard worker ’s mind , but the hiding of a secret message in plain sight ( or steganography ) is a maneuver that goes back millennium .
Last week , reports inThe New York TimesandThe Interceptrevealed the National Security Agency ( NSA ) has been communicating with Russian spies using their public Twitter account , give the previous practice a 21st - century twist .
This was part of a joint effort from members of the CIA and NSA to regain classified government documents steal by Russian hackers . allot to the reports , the spy in question was also willing to offer government officials the dirt on President Trump .
In the goal , the hatful return through because of US concern over the legitimacy of the intel – but that was not before the NSA transport a bunch of very public content to the spy . The tweets , almost a 12 in total , were designed not to spark suspicion .
One read , " Samuel Morse patent the telegraph 177 years ago . Did you recognise you could still institutionalise telegrams ? Faster than C. W. Post & pay only if it ’s fork over . "
The spy was told what the message would say and when it would be station . The aim of these message : to show official want " to communicate with the Russians or assure them that the US was still support the distribution channel " , reportsThe Intercept .
So , what is steganography ? Essentially , it ’s the reverse of cryptology . Cryptography is a razz message that can only be deciphered by a someone possessing a Francis Scott Key . Anyone who comes across that subject matter will be intimate it ’s a dupe message , even if they ca n’t understand the subject . In contrast , cryptography is very public but , when successful , the message can only be interpreted by the desired receiver , while the rest of the reality remain oblivious .
The drill go back years . accord to the ancient Hellenic historian Herodotus , Histiaeus of Miletus tattooed a message on the bald head of a hard worker in 513 BCE . He waited for the hair to grow before sending his slave to the Greeks , who , again , shaved the nous of the inadequate , tattooed slave to learn Histiaeus ' message .
More latterly , spy have turned to the kingdom of the digital . Inone case , the FBI discovered secret messages from Russian spies in New Jersey obscure in the pel of photos post on a public website .
[ H / T : The New York Times , The Intercept ]
