Several years back I was travelling and stopped by a Chapters bookstore in
the Canadian capital. I found a few socialist magazines and picked them up
to read their rubbish. It was shortly after picking these up that I noticed something peculiar. At the bottom of the magazine pages there were lines and dots that seemed non-random. On the bottom of each page was a non-random
pair of lines short-mid- and long that appeared to code for something that
the recipients would be able to decode yet not be obvious to the casual
reader. After buying a book called "Steganography: Hiding in Plain Sight" I was up on most of the lateset techniques to convey information secretly. Anyways, so there were artifacts at the bottom of each page in the magazine, that definitely seemed non-random, and they could be explained away by
claiming poor printing processes -- however that wouldn't explain the particulars of the markings which were semi-obviously placed there. I don't remember which magazine it was in that I saw this, as I was just picking up
the mag for kicks, reading it as someone would read the National Enquirer: total "useful idiot" levels of rubbish. Maybe you would be interested in buying some fringe magazines and looking for potential codes. This would be
a great way to convey messages covertly as you would have a single printing house and worldwide distribution, so the source could be fully controlled and the distribution would send identical code-laden prints throughout the whole world, available at large book chains such as Chapters/Indigo, Coles, etc.

Best regards,
warmfuzzy

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On 09 Mar 2019, warmfuzzy said the following...

Several years back I was travelling and stopped by a Chapters bookstore
in the Canadian capital. I found a few socialist magazines and picked them up to read their rubbish. It was shortly after picking these up
that I noticed something peculiar. At the bottom of the magazine pages there were lines and dots that seemed non-random. On the bottom of each page was a non-random pair of lines short-mid- and long that appeared to code for something that the recipients would be able to decode yet not
be obvious to the casual reader. After buying a book called "Steganography: Hiding in Plain Sight" I was up on most of the lateset techniques to convey information secretly. Anyways, so there were artifacts at the bottom of each page in the magazine, that definitely seemed non-random, and they could be explained away by claiming poor printing processes -- however that wouldn't explain the particulars of
the markings which were semi-obviously placed there. I don't remember which magazine it was in that I saw this, as I was just picking up the
mag for kicks, reading it as someone would read the National Enquirer: total "useful idiot" levels of rubbish. Maybe you would be interested
in buying some fringe magazines and looking for potential codes. This would be a great way to convey messages covertly as you would have a single printing house and worldwide distribution, so the source could be fully controlled and the distribution would send identical code-laden prints throughout the whole world, available at large book chains such as

Well my job is a driver that delivers all magazines and books to stores such
as chapters/indigo and would be curious as to what kind of magazine it was. I have access to most of these magazines and could look to see if it was a continuous thing reoccurring.

There's two types of magazines: Weeklies ie. People, In Touch, Star etc. then there's specialized ie. Woodworking, Guns and Ammo etc. I'd be curious if you could remember what magazine it would have been. Weeklies I would think would be a smarter way to communicate something as it's a weekly thing, whereas the specialized magazines tend to be bi-weekly or monthly so much slower.

I've skimmed through weeklies all the time to kill time even though it's all full of crap about celebrities but never noticed this although I haven't
really paid too much attention. I definitely will now.

Let me know if you remember what magazine it was and I can keep an eye out
and even get pictures.

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warmfuzzy wrote to All <=-

Several years back I was travelling and stopped by a Chapters bookstore
in the Canadian capital. I found a few socialist magazines and picked them up to read their rubbish. It was shortly after picking these up
that I noticed something peculiar. At the bottom of the magazine pages there were lines and dots that seemed non-random. On the bottom of
each page was a non-random pair of lines short-mid- and long that
appeared to code for something that the recipients would be able to
decode yet not be obvious to the casual reader.

There was an interesting example of hiding in plain sight in the BBSC
series Sherlock - as a code, they used two numbers to represent words.
Sherlock surmised that it was a cipher where both parties had a public key.
It turned out they were using a common book, Time Out London, and the
numbers referred to page numbers and word occurences on the page. An interesting way of getting information to another party without arousing suspicion, since anyone would have a copy of that book anyway.

How about a Gideon bible as a cipher base? :)






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There was an interesting example of hiding in plain sight in the BBSC series Sherlock - as a code, they used two numbers to represent words. Sherlock surmised that it was a cipher where both parties had a public key. It turned out they were using a common book, Time Out London, and
the numbers referred to page numbers and word occurences on the page. An interesting way of getting information to another party without arousing suspicion, since anyone would have a copy of that book anyway.
How about a Gideon bible as a cipher base? :)

Heh :) yeah, a Gideon Bible would work well, however they're diversifying
Bible versions, so you'd now have to find either NASB or NLT. The classic Gideon Bible is in the NASB (New American Standard Bible) while the new one which they think is easier to read is the NLT (New Living Translation). But, yeah, they are just about everywhere a hotel is.

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Maybe I missed it, but this type of cipher has a proper name, It's the "Ottendorf cipher" .. probably most widely known from it's inclusion in the National Treasure movie.

https://mysteriouswritings.com/mw-codes-ciphers-and-puzzle-series-the-ottendorf -cipher/

Any book will work, so long as it's the proper edition on both ends, and the larger the better, though it doesn't NEED to be a large book, the most important thing is all deciphering use the same book. But... the larger, the better of course, for more randomness/etc.

I think a strong argument could be made for using more rare books too. But if it's all about easily accessible, but still fairly strongly encrypted, a common, mundane book.. like a cookbook, or particular edition of a
dictionary would work great too.

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