Do you think cryptanalysis is used in the War on Terror??

[seemingly random]

I've heard that it's used so that communication can be accomplished in plain sight. For example, there's a u.s. forum (forums.anandtech.com) that has a user, GodlessAstronomer, who pretends to be an innocent student from one of those horrid aborigenes islands in the south pacific. In reality, he's a communications center for several terrorist organizations. He advertises and has coupons for his services in 'terrorist today' magazine.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Unless of course my sarcasm meter is broken.

There is always that possibility.

Now, wait a minute. I thought you were _always_ serious. I need to go through all of your posts to reevaluate. I might need to sell some stocks and change mistresses.

 

[kage69]

Terrorists of the religious persuasion are fond of using religious and cultural metaphors from antiquity, rather than mathematically complex codes, or so a friend in the Navy informs me. He used to be a complete dork, but since being sent to some kind of cryptography training he is the epitome of seriousness, and looks like he only sleeps on a bi-weekly basis. I take that to mean he's kept quite busy, so yes, I think it plays a big part in current day conflicts.

 

[ModerateRepZero]

I haven't really thought much about encryption regarding the War on Terrorism, but my understanding is that AQ / Taliban tend to communicate by low-tech means; couriered messages, disposable cellphones etc. They do use the internet as a means of disseminating propaganda / information, but I haven't read anything as of yet to indicate that they are using mathematically sophisticated encryption a la Enigma Machine.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: Leros
Its really simple for anybody to download a encryption program like truecrypt.

I think the point of the question was for communications. Using encryption correctly for communications is much harder then storing a file on your desktop.

I would guess they use simple code words.

Not really that much harder. Same principle.

 

[irishScott]

I imagine they might use publicly available encryption, but their primary objective in communications is to not get caught. Even if you can't read an encrypted transmission, if it's coming from a known target you can still potentially trace/use it. Thus the reason they use pre-paid cellphones and low-tech options.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: irishScott
I imagine they might use publicly available encryption, but their primary objective in communications is to not get caught. Even if you can't read an encrypted transmission, if it's coming from a known target you can still potentially trace/use it. Thus the reason they use pre-paid cellphones and low-tech options.

You just use several layers of proxy's. And change the ones you use every time.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: kage69
Terrorists of the religious persuasion are fond of using religious and cultural metaphors from antiquity, rather than mathematically complex codes, or so a friend in the Navy informs me. He used to be a complete dork, but since being sent to some kind of cryptography training he is the epitome of seriousness, and looks like he only sleeps on a bi-weekly basis. I take that to mean he's kept quite busy, so yes, I think it plays a big part in current day conflicts.

Well even if terrorist cells don't, I imagine Russia, China, North Korea, Iran et al make extensive use of high-level encryption.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: irishScott
I imagine they might use publicly available encryption, but their primary objective in communications is to not get caught. Even if you can't read an encrypted transmission, if it's coming from a known target you can still potentially trace/use it. Thus the reason they use pre-paid cellphones and low-tech options.

You just use several layers of proxy's. And change the ones you use every time.

True, but even those can be traced given time. Wasn't there a paper a while back stating how location info can be obtained from a tor link? It was way over my head, but apparently it's possible given a viable presence within the network. I wouldn't be surprised if the NSA could create that kind of presence.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: paulney
GA, you don't know neither who Billy Mays nor who Farrah Fawcett are. Why would we want to share our deepest knowledge with a person like you?

QFT...dude seems to know only things that you can find inside a cave in siberia.

 

[The J]

Here's a book for anyone who's curious about the spread of cryptography: http://www.amazon.com/Crypto-R...-Digital/dp/0140244328

As you can tell by the title, the book isn't exactly an objective account, but I thought it was interesting anyhow.

 

[Sea Moose]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: her209
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=al+qaeda+encryption

Yeah, thanks douchebag. Like I said in the OP, no one knows the extent to which this is being done. That's why I asked "Do you think". You obviously don't.

Hahaa hilarious as always GA!

this

 

[judasmachine]

Well the Bush admin went on and on about stopping the money and electronic trail of AQ down. I figure that AQ is savvy enough to embed messages into websites, as to what kind of encryption/cypher was used to put it there is anyone's guess. But assuming AQ has no tech savvy folks is both dumb, and short sighted.

 

[alkemyst]

There is guy Christopher Farmer that has done some cool things in crypto. His 'group' lead the way in the Zodiac code.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: Fox5
AFAIK, the most the Taliban use are simple ciphers.

But we don't really know, if they were using something more advanced we wouldn't know for years. People didn't know what was going on in Bletchley Park until nearly 30 years after the war.

They use the Atbash cipher