Re: Hidden encrypted messages

[J. Michael Diehl <mdiehl@triton.unm.edu>]

> Alex's (good) idea about using creative spacing to hide an encrypted message
> is similar to that what I'd originally proposed (and of course it has to
> be hiding an *encrypted* message!).  I've gotten a number of responses
> of the form "Why not just claim that an encrypted message is data?",
> but my original point was Plausible Deniability.  That is, I was
> postulating an environment in which Big Brother has outlawed cryptography.
> Now, confronted with a confiscated message, the sender has to defend
> himself from the Inquisition.  Can't just claim it's a sound file;
> the Inquisitor will want it played.  The question I'm trying to answer

So I say, "Damn! CRC Error!  Must be a bad disk.  Well, no point in keeping
THIS sitting around."

> is how to produce on demand a causal explanation of data (which actually
> contains an encrypted message) that satisfies an investigator and
> doesn't reveal the encrypted message.  Some simple scheme like, "Uh,

I understand what you want.  Wish I understood how to do it. ;^)

> it's the result of my new random number generation algorithm" isn't
> likely to be *satisfying* and is certain to produce the response,
> "OK, let's see the algorithm."
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| J. Michael Diehl ;-) |  I thought I was wrong once.  But, I was mistaken. |
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| mdiehl@triton.unm.edu| "I'm just looking for the opportunity to be        |
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