trol centers of the malware’s authors.
The captured information is hidden in
seemingly innocent pictures and traverses
the global network as ordinary
files, without raising any suspicion.21,51
A similar functioning mechanism was
found in a new variant of the Alureon
malware,3 which was also discovered
around the same time.
These facts indicate that in today’s
world of digital technologies, it is easily
imaginable that the carrier, in which
secret data is embedded, was not necessarily
an image or Web page source
code, but may have been any other file
type or organizational unit of data—for
example, a packet or a frame—that naturally
occurs in computer networks.
However, we emphasize the process of
embedding secret information into an
innocent-looking carrier is not some
recent invention—it has been known
and used for ages by humankind. This
process is called steganography and its
origins can be traced back to ancient
times. Moreover, its importance has
not decreased since its birth.