Friday Squid Blogging: Steganographic Squid
Seems that some squid can hide messages in their skin:
In the animal world, squid are masters of disguise. Pigmented skin cells enable them to camouflage themselves—almost instantaneously—from predators. Squid also produce polarized skin patterns by regulating the iridescence of their skin, possibly creating a “hidden communication channel”? visible only to animals that are sensitive to polarized light.
[…]
Mäthger and Hanlon’s findings present the first anatomical evidence for a “hidden communication channel”? that can remain masked by typical camouflage patterns. Their results suggest that it might be possible for squid to send concealed polarized signals to one other while staying camouflaged to fish or mammalian predators, most of which do not have polarization vision.
My favorite security stories are from the natural world. Evolution results in some of the most interesting security countermeasures.
NIc • September 29, 2006 3:35 PM
I would not have believed it was possible to link squid and cryptography!