This NYT piece explores how easy it is for people to use the Internet covertly, and how that is freaking out the U.S.'s counter-terrorism gurus -- you know, the ones who can't cope with terrorists communicating in the open.
Read it and introduce yourself to new terms and tools like steganography and spammimic.
An excerpt:
he indictment early this month of Mark Robert Walker by a federal grand jury in
"I hate the U.S. government," is among the statements Mr. Walker is said to have posted online. "I wish I could have been flying one of the planes on Sept. 11."
By international terror standards, it was an extremely low-level bust. But the case, which was supposedly broken only after Mr. Walker's roommate tipped off the police, highlights the near impossibility of tracking terrorist communications online.
Even George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, speaking on the vulnerabilities of the nation's computer networks at a technology security conference on Dec. 1, noted the ability of terrorists to "work anonymously and remotely to inflict enormous damage at little cost or risk to themselves." He called for a wholesale taming of cyberspace.
"I know that these actions would be controversial in this age where we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," Mr. Tenet said, "But, ultimately, the Wild West must give way to governance and control."
Even if the government is able to shore up its networks against attack - one of many goals set forth by the intelligence reform bill passed last week - the ability of terrorists and other dark elements to engage in covert communications online remains a daunting security problem, and one that may prove impossible to solve.