[Bush2000]

If I'm running an ISP, it's a pretty simple matter for a sniffer to let me know that a file of a precise size has passed...

Except, if they were clever, they encrypted the original file (or broke it into pieces, possibly embedded in other files -- steganography) and sent it somewhere overseas, where it was actually decrypted and sent to those scumbag Arab "news" outlets...

[FreeReign]

Except, if they were clever, they encrypted the original file (or broke it into pieces, possibly embedded in other files -- steganography) and sent it somewhere overseas, where it was actually decrypted and sent to those scumbag Arab "news" outlets...

Sending it to an intermediary probably wouldn't help. It just creates an extra hop to trace.

If one hop can be traced, then so can two.

[Southack]

Encryption doesn't help much (simply because the header packets in the TCP/IP world are always transmitted in the clear), but breaking the file up into random sized pieces (transmitted at random times from random sources) *would* help if the recievers of that file never made the final product public.

Likewise, steganography (hiding data inside a large picture) is what is known as "security through obscurity," the weakest form of data protection.

Steganography is great for protecting against amatuers. It's merely a false sense of security against the pros, though.