On this day, Friday 19th February 1993, Ms. Kate Hoey (member of parliament for Vauxhall, London) used ‘Parliamentary Privilege‘ (which provides immunity from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act) to reveal the existence of a previously secret high-tech installation in central London. “Hon. Members have given examples of seemingly trivial information that remains officially secret. […]
Tag: secret
They gamely plant a secret password in the participant’s brain
They gamely plant a secret password in the participant’s brain, they say, in this presentation: “Neuroscience Meets Cryptography: Designing Crypto Primitives Secure Against Rubber Hose Attacks,” Hristo Bojinov [Stanford University], Daniel Sanchez and Paul Reber [Northwestern University], Dan Boneh [Stanford University], Patrick Lincoln [SRI], 21st USENIX Security Symposium, August 8-12, 2014, Bellevue, Washington. (Thanks to […]
Cryptic, boneheaded writings by spies
The CIA invites the public to read these two documents: ELEGANT WRITING IN THE CLANDESINE SERVICES ELEGANT WRITING-REPORT NUMBER TWO Both documents purport to be written by Richard T. Puderbaugh. Puderbaugh collects and savors boneheaded writing by spies. The CIA web site calls this kind of writing “tortured prose“. Here’s a passage fromPuderbaugh’s first report: the […]
Comparing (almost) identical papers – a steganographic exercise
As those keen on encryption and decryption will know, there are quite a few documented methods by which ‘secret’ messages can be concealed within apparently straightforward-looking chunks of text. Indeed, the original meaning of the word ‘Steganography‘ is simply ‘concealed writing’. For example, two blocks of text which at first glance appear alike can have […]
Sceret: Sceret Scientist Song, sung
This week’s Sceret Question of the Week is “What is “The Scientist Song’?”. The answer: ‘The Scientist Song’ is a simple song about scientists, written for a TV producer’s challenge to write and sing a song in the studio, and performed by Joe DeGeorge, a physics student at Clark University. The TV program identifies itself […]
The pumpkin phloem that is secret
Read if you dare (and if you have a subscription to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) the report “The secret phloem of pumpkins,” by the possibly mysterious Robert Turgeon and Karl Oparka. (Thanks to investigator Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) BONUS: Phloem, for the uninitiated BONUS: “Up the cleppie, doon […]