The word “Steganography” is from the Greek meaning “covered, or hidden writing”. Generally, a steganographic message will appear to be something else: a picture, a report, or some other document. The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that messages do not attract attention to themselves. A visible coded message, no matter how unbreakable, will arouse suspicion.
A steganographic message in plaintext is first encrypted, and then a covertext is modified to contain the encrypted message. The recipient can recover and decrypt it if he knows the techniques used to conceal and encrypt the hidden message.
Stories of terrorists using steganographic messages began with USA Today articles written by Jack Kelley, who was fired in 2004 for fabricated stories and inventing sources. Private Investigators have far more mundane uses for steganography.
Steganography is used for “Watermarking” which has taken on a new importance in the digital era. Digital images, video, and text, are all easily copied and illegally distributed. By embedding identifying information in a file, steganography software enables Investigators to control the distribution of, and to verify ownership of their digital information. It essentially conceals copyright and distribution information within digital information. One easy-to-use program for this purpose is wbStego.
However, beware that the more important the steganographic message, the more likely someone will try to remove it. StirMark and other software may remove copyright information from files.
A remarkable tribute written by Irishman Kevin Myers about Canada’s record of quiet valour in wartime. This article appeared in the April 21, 2002 edition of the Sunday Telegraph, one of Britain’s largest circulation newspapers and in Canada’s National Post on April 26, 2002.
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For 18 tense months, a computer-savvy grifter named David Thomas runs a thriving online crime hub for bank heists, identity theft and counterfeiting, with the FBI paying the bills. Part one of a three-part series by Kim Zetter.
This is an excellent look into how Internet savy crooks go about their business.
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If you don’t make use of Blogs in your Competitive Intelligence research you are missing out on a potential source of vital information. However, you must learn to deal with the high noise to signal ratio.
Blog research, at its best, is primary research as you are reading the original author. Blogs vary in quality, content, and accuracy. You need to evaluate what you find quite carefully. On the other hand, they are a superb source of gossip and rumours, which you will have to substantiate or carefully evaluate. Of course, once you find a relevant Blog it will lead you to others that may be relevant. Just follow the links, blogrolls, and tags.
Here is my list of Blog search engines:
Technorati Sphere Icerocket Google Kinja Livejournal Blogpulse Findory Blogdigger Feedster Plazoo Bloglines Bloogz Xanga Tailrank Clusty
Here is my list Blog-related sites useful for finding CEO or Executive Blogs:
CEO Blog List CEO Blog Watch Fortune 500 Business Blog
CrossEngine offers a text box to type in your query like all search engines, however, you can choose your search engine. It provides an interface to many search sites organized into categories such as Web, Images, Video, Audio, etc. The handiest thing about CrossEngine is that you to type your query once and then view the results from various search engines according to your desire.
Wikiseek is a beta version of a search engine that indexes Wikipedia, and more importantly, the sites that are linked-to from the Wikipedia articles.
Most of the sites linked-to from Wikipedia articles are relevant and reliable. The people who write the articles believe the sites are relevant, afterall, they are writing about something they know well.
An added feature I like is the cloud of categories related to your search term. The categories appear at the top of the results page — the largest categories in the largest typeface.
Let’s hope this progresses beyond the beta version.
The Federal Court of Canada has recently awarded Microsoft Canada Co. the highest statutory damages in an intellectual property case in the country.
The court’s decision directing Inter-Plus Inc., a Montreal-based software reseller, to pay Microsoft a total of $500,000 in statutory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages was called “ground breaking” by software industry insiders.
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The BBC offers several short examples of Industrial Espionage.
Even Marks & Spencer is not immune. Again the BBC describes how mobile telephones represent a significant risk and superb opportunity to spy on top executives.
Nearly one in five violent incidents in Canada occurred in the workplace of the victim in 2004 and the majority of the workplace crimes were physical assaults, according to the Statistics Canada 2004 General Social Survey.
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Hidden devices set up in the local arena, municipal building and firehall in small Ontario community
The Globe and Mail reports that the small rural Ontario municipality of Highlands East, in the Haliburton area, had installed cameras in several facilities. The article described the device thusly:
“The camera was powered up and broadcasting both audio and video, it was set up so anybody within about 300 feet who had that type of receiver could watch in there and listen with impunity.”
I think somebody in Highlands East should read Part VI of the Canadian Criminal Code. If this device captured audio then it might be considered a listening device used to illegally intercept private communications.
An excellent article on the practical aspects of using tracking devices. I especially like the comments about GPS mobile phones:
“It would work to a point if the user had the phone on their hip, or in a position with a clear view of the sky, with absolutely no obstructions. It is useless in vehicles.”
However, using a vehicle tracker of any kind requires a warrant in Canada according to CCC S. 492.1.
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Simply Google places 37 search options and more, all on the very first page all neatly arranged in columns.
If you want to experience the worst search engine interface in the business check-out Ms. Dewey.
The use of national intelligence assets to support business and economic goals is common in many countries. However, when it is debated by the CIA we should pay attention. A Time article from 1993, Next for the Cia: Business Spying? illustrates the issues surrounding this topic.
Competitive Intelligence is the LEGAL acquisition of knowledge about the business environment. The Private Investigator can be a useful tool for gathering Competitive Intelligence.
For instance, surveilling competitors to identify their customers in aid of a new marketing plan. Once the sales calls begin, you may find one competitor has many dissatisfied customers who are ready for a change. This is an inexpensive way to enter new markets or expand a customer base.