Do criminals actually use steganography to engage in organized crime?
Steganography is capable of aiding organized criminal operations, but is there any evidence that it is actually used by criminal operations? If such evidence exists, then it has serious policy implications for the US. Here are some recent instances of steganography uncovered in criminal investigations:
Terrorism:
Indian investigators believe the July 7, 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai hotels were covertly planned using emails containing steganographic files. The files contained maps, blueprints, photographs and instructions from leaders and were sent from at least 35 email accounts.
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mumbai-police-fail-to-crack-july-11-suspects-mail_1058716
Child Pornography:
British law enforcement task forces dedicated to catching distributors of child pornography regularly encounter and attempt to decrypt steganographic images of child abuse. A string of 2008 terrorism-related raids uncovered several instances of altered child abuse images, though Scotland Yard has not disclosed the content of the altered files. British security services now believe that the use of child pornography images and websites by individuals with ties to terrorism is a growing trend. They have established several pilot programs to cross train counter terrorism and child welfare task force officials to be aware of this trend.
Without naming specific cases, security officials referring to the anti-terror raids uncovered as few as a dozen or as many as 40,000 altered images of child abuses on suspects computers. They also said these images turn up in some of the most advanced terror plots. Officials are unsure if users have the images for their own personal gratification or if they are exploiting already established communication networks of organized criminal activity.
British officials first became aware of the nexus between child pornography and terrorism in 2006 when two separate investigations uncovered images of child abuse. Police in Italy uncovered similar images in a 2001 terrorism investigation at a mosque in Milan. An al-Qaida recruiter running the mosque was convicted of possessing several computers containing images and ideos of child pornography believed to contain embedded content.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4959002.ece