Sending secret messages over public internet lines can take place with new technique

Eurekalert ^ | 10-Oct-2006 | Colleen Morrison

[Teflonic]

If interested, here's the pdf link to the full paper.

[theDentist]

You can be sure al-Qaeda is reading up on it.

[Dracian]

It's is just spread-spectrum applied to optical.

[Dracian]

You can be sure al-Qaeda is reading up on it.

Unless they own the electronics on both ends of the fiber, this knowledge wouldn't do anyone any good.

[theDentist]

Perhaps not immediately, but given time and breakthroughs...

[beezdotcom]

Somewhere, somehow, this innovation will tie back to porn...it often seems to...

[rit]

Agreed. They will need fiber throughout the entire network in which the message travel. In my opinion, architecting a more appropriate public key infrastructure would make more sense.

[Cold Heart]

I would think you would need the cooperation of the cable guy (company).
Most optical transmissions end up or start out as electrical signals that need conversion to optical and then back.

[theDentist]

Uh huh.... all I'm saying is: for now. let's look again in 5 years or 10 years and see if it's commonplace.

[econjack]

Given the way message packets are transmitted over the Net today, I would guess it will be a while before this technology is universally applicable.

[taxcontrol]

First paragraph of the paper says:


".... if appropriate filters are used"

In short, only works in the lab. No real world application unless you 1) have physical access to both ends of the fiber or 2) can control the equipment between the two end points.

All it would take to kill this would be ONE optical filter designed to block the "noise". It would also be interesting to see how resilient this is to chromatic dispersion.

[Izzy Dunne]

This is old stuff. For instance, properly trained observers can detect the tower in this picture:

[Spktyr]

Somewhere there is an NSA tech rolling on the floor laughing as he sits in his cube monitoring the seventh generation version of this hardware....

[taxcontrol]

Dude, if that is a picture of your lady.... your are very blessed!

[Dracian]

Perhaps not immediately, but given time and breakthroughs...

Why would Islamics spend all those resources on such an esotric means of communication when they can just go to the Mosque and make their plans in plain language?

You have to give them some credit for ROI (return on investment.) I mean they brought down the WTC with a couple of razor blades.

[b4its2late]

Be nice and don't use too much of my bandwidth.......

[Enterprise]

I can't see the tower, the noise is too loud.

[ContemptofCourt]

Or just have multiple people log into the same email account, and leave messages in draft form for others to view?

[Dracian]

Agreed. They will need fiber throughout the entire network in which the message travel. In my opinion, architecting a more appropriate public key infrastructure would make more sense.

Yeah, this type of technology is of interest to people who want secure links but rent their fiber from someone else. Since they can't be sure the fiber isn't being tapped if it is out of their control, they want end to end security. Hence this additional method, beyond encryption. It's stealth on top of encryption.

[CholeraJoe]

I'll bet them things keep her warm during those cold Canadian winters.