WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Steganography Works 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.520 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.319 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:22.240 how Tech Arenia. Well, it is time for a classic 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.320 episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally published on April 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:30.040 fift two thousand fifteen. It is titled how Steganography Works 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:32.879 and it is not a Dinosaur. I can't remember if 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:34.720 actually made that joke in this episode. I guess we're 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:40.160 gonna find out. Let's listen. This is an ancient listener request, folks. So, Peter, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.480 I apologize that took so long for us to get there, 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.280 but I'm really excited that we get to cover it today. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.000 Here's what Peter wrote. He said, I recently bought a 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:52.479 book called Data Hiding that is about steganography. I look 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.560 to see if this is something you have covered, but 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.200 found you had not. I think that this would be 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.200 an extremely interesting topic. You would be able to cover 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.880 the ways in which data can be hidden, as well 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.920 as who uses such techniques like al Qaeda, the n 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.319 s A, malware, authors, hobbyists, et cetera. Yeah, we're going 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.479 to cover steganography, which is not what I originally thought 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.440 it was. I originally thought it was the study of 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.680 Stegosauri stegasaurces. Yeah, I thought it was the study of 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.640 dinosaur calligraphy. So we were both on the wrong track, 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.800 as it turns out. Uh yeah, So what actually is steganography. Well, 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.080 steganography is the art of hiding something within something else. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.319 It can be simple, like a hidden message in a 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.160 painting or photograph, or it can be something really complicated, 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.320 like an electronic file or message hidden in another file 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:48.240 or message. Yeah. Yeah, So it's essentially the the art 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.080 of being able to send a message without people even 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.880 knowing that you've done so, right, That's that's the goal 0:01:55.040 --> 0:02:00.720 of steganography. So the parties in steganography are there, are 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:02.560 you know? This is how we break it down. You've 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.440 got the cinder that's the person who's created the message 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.040 and wants to communicate something. You have the receiver, which 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.680 is the person who the message is intended to go to. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:17.639 You have the carrier message, which is the the the 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:22.560 construct that hides the secret message. So this could be whatever, Like, 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.919 it could be a painting, the boring note about your 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.920 cousin's children, or it could be a soccer ball that 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.400 happens to have a secret assage written on the inside 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.079 of it. It could be that Wilson in Castaway was 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:40.960 in fact Stagana Graham, which is the other element. So, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.520 by the way, there are a lot of Greek words 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.239 and Greek names and some Roman names, so Latin as well, 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:49.679 that's going to be all of those are gonna be 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:51.880 popping up. There also a couple of other names from 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:57.840 other cultures. I'm an ignorant American, so my pronunciation is 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.640 going to be awful, and I can barely grasp the 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:02.799 American language, which I've grown up with all my life, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.880 so mine will be work. Yeah, So just just letting 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:07.720 you guys know that ahead of time. So the ski 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.840 staganogram say, I'm never going to get that, otherwise known 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:14.639 as the secret message. We're just gonna I'm going to 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.480 call it secrets just from now on and then potentially 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.320 third parties. So in other words, people who might come 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.240 into contact with this message. The goal is to make 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.880 sure that those third parties are never aware that there 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.560 is a message there in the first place, and if 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.480 it's done right, they won't be Yeah. So in other words, 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.520 you could have a messenger a go between carry this 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.000 thing from one person to the other and never know 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.400 that there was something hidden in there. Although sometimes it's 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.000 good if they're confident, because you need to get a 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.040 message to the person who needs to decipher it on 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.520 how to decipher it right, right. If the person who 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:54.360 receives the message isn't aware of the method to find it, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.000 it doesn't do them a lot of good. So if 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.920 if you have been able to collude with your receiver left, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.720 if I'm sending a message to Ariel, and Ariel and 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.080 I have decided ahead of time, Hey, if I ever 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.080 need to send you a message, this is how I'm 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:09.760 going to do it, and this is how you're going 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.760 to see what the message is, then we're okay. But 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.000 if if it's a situation where Ariel and I have 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.200 been separated for a long time and I need to 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.600 send her a message and I needed to be secret, 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:21.560 I've got to figure out a way to give her 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.680 instructions as to how to retrieve that message. And sometimes 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.479 that involves, you know, paying somebody, like just tell her 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.200 to wash the wax off, and we'll explain what that 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:38.120 means a little bit later. So there, wash the wax off, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.760 the Yeah sure, yeah, I mean just in general. So 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.080 we've got the elements here. Those are your basic elements 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.760 to to have Steganography actually makes sense, And now we 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.440 need to talk about the difference between that and a 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:59.800 related art cryptography, which, yes, cryptography is the art of 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.680 making and solving codes. Uh, but anybody can see that 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.480 it's a code. Right, So if I send a coded 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.520 message to arial, it may be that any third party 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.039 can't see what the message is, but they know I'm 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.680 trying to communicate to her, Yeah, because why else would 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:17.320 he send me a piece of paper that says music 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:22.839 of yeh, unless I've just fallen asleep on my keyboard, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.520 then clearly I'm trying to say something. So and then 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.080 I'm just wasting my time trying to decipher. Right. So, 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:34.120 cryptography keys in people that something's going on. It lets 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:38.000 people know there's some sort of communication. And uh. You 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:42.120 might have a pretty simple type of code, like a 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.240 simple cipher where you know the old classic uh substitution 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.440 cipher where you substitute one letter for another, the simplest 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.920 being let's shift all the letters over by one. So 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.720 and uh, whenever I write the letter B, I really 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:58.960 mean the letter a. Whenever I write the letter C, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.800 I really mean the letter be. This is what's called 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.560 a really bad cipher. It's easy to figure out. I 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.520 don't know. When I try to do the cryptograms in 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.240 puzzle books, had such a hard time, And it's the 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.599 same thing. Well, sometimes a substitution cipher can get a 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.960 little more complicated. So for example, when you substitute one 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.680 letter for another, then the next time you substitute a letter, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.039 you actually shift over again. So in other words, the 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.440 first time you only shift over one letter, the second 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.440 time you shift over two letters, the third time you 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.800 shift over three letters. So if you know the algorithm, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.440 if you know the pattern, then when you get the message, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.920 you can reverse that and you know to look for it. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.040 If you don't know the pattern, then you have to 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.200 spend more time trying to figure out what the pattern is. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.760 And while that still is a fairly simple example, things 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:51.279 like the um the Enigma machine in World War Two, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.520 which was the Germans way of sending coded messages. They 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.160 had this machine that had three different The basic one 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.280 had three different dials that they had set. And then 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.080 I had a typewriter and a bunch of lamps and 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.000 when you pressed down a key of a letter, a 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.040 lamp would light up, indicating a different letter. So let's 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.400 say I typed the letter E to type in Enigma, 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:21.480 but the letter for in lights up. Then it would 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.480 actually go a certain number of steps, so that the 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.520 next letter I type would be a totally unpredictable letter. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.240 If I didn't have an Enigma machine of my own. Well, 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.400 that's really good, because if I tried to write a cipher, 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.280 I would totally lose place of where I was if 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.040 I was constantly shifting the letter, and my message would 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.680 be nonsensical, both decrypted and encrypted. Yeah, exactly, that that is. 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.280 That's the reason why the Germans were using a machine 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.800 so that way it could be predictable, but only if 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.520 both parties had the same style of Enigma machine and 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:00.600 they both knew what the initial settings were, so part 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:05.960 of the communication would include a a key saying this 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.120 is what you need to set it to. Although technically 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.400 they were all supposed to have a communication telling them 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:14.680 what settings to use each day, and they were never 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:19.640 supposed to repeat those settings. Eventually people got lazy, and 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.840 that's how those codes were eventually broken by Alan Turing, 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.520 which you can see in that film, the imitation game, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:32.360 the imitation game exactly. So steganography obviously is different from cryptography, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.960 and that yes, you're still sending secret messages, but the 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:39.000 message itself, the existence of the message is secret. Anybody, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.160 any layman looking at the message or the photo or 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.000 the paper won't know it's there, right, So you you 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.880 can still encrypt it. You can still use cryptography. In fact, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.440 using both together makes a lot of sense. But ultimately 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.360 with steganography, if you've hidden the message well enough and 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.880 people are not if people don't know to look for it, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:04.240 it's safe to be in plain text to whomever you're 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.600 sending it to, depending upon what method you use, because 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.920 there are a lot of different ones, right um um. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.560 A great way to further explain it is to go 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.560 back to the Greek. Cryptography means secret writing and stag 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.880 atography means covered writing. I pause there because I was 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.480 really surprised I said it correctly. Well, every time I 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.679 say it correctly, I will also be surprised. Uh yeah, 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.800 So that really that gets down to the heart of it, right, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.480 And the combination of the two allows you to have 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:40.640 more secure communication. Now, there's an art to finding hidden 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.320 messages that have been concealed in this way. Yes, it 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.880 is called stag analysis, which I tried to look up 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.520 what the Greek of that meant, and it meant covered 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:55.840 breaking up, loosening of Yeah, so it's it's all very repetitive. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.959 It just means you're uncovering the secret message, right. So 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.320 depending upon the type of uh steganogram that has been sent, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.000 you would use a different method to find the meaning. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.439 So when we're talking about the modern version of steganography, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.760 we're really talking about ones and zeros digital information. So 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.400 stag analysis is largely concerned with that because that's that's 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.680 the main way messages are sent these days, is through 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:29.040 a digital file of some sort that to an outside 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.640 view looks like a normal file. There's nothing that seems 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.079 remarkable about it. But if you were to analyze the 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.600 actual digital information of that file, you would start to 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.839 see patterns that would indicate something hanky is going. Yes, 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.840 and in steak analysis, there are two steps to deciphering 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.760 and the first is detecting it um, which if if 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:51.559 it is like a handwritten message or something like that, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.960 and it's very fairly obvious, you can do it without 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.920 any special software. UM. But where it does happen so 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.520 much in the digital age. Um their disk analysis programs 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.320 that will just look at it for you. Yeah, you 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:11.320 actually run your suspected uh secret message. So it could 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.839 be very simple like a lot of and a lot 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.559 of examples I see are photographs that have been uploaded 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.760 to public forums and the idea being that well, when 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.720 it's in the public eye, no one's paying attention to 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.120 it because it's just something that we see all the time. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.000 Like if you were to post a picture to Facebook, yeah, 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.920 a lot of a lot of people do. Then because 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:36.480 that's so common, it doesn't tend to raise suspicion. So 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.480 first of all, someone has to know that there's something 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.760 to look for, right, they have to first be suspicious 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.839 that there's some form of communication going on. Then they 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:47.560 have to start figuring out, all right, how is this 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.680 communication happening, And then they would have to start targeting 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.319 the various means of that, and one of those might 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.760 be photographs, and they'd say, all right, let's take this 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:00.560 image that was uploaded to whatever site, and let's run 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.360 it through one of these disk analysis programs and see 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.719 if that comes up with anything that perhaps there's some 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.960 indication that something's out of place, and it might be 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.880 something that you looking at would notice if you knew 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.199 what to look for. Yeah, that's called perceptible noise. So 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:24.640 sometimes if audio visual files are slightly off, there might 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.600 be perceptible noise in there. So that would just be 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.440 an indicator, right, something saying something's not right now. That 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.160 can happen naturally, like that could just be a problem 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.720 with the file and not not be an indication that 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.760 there's anything super secret going on, or it could be 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.679 an indication that, in fact, some of the bits in 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.800 that file have been altered in order to send a 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:52.200 secret message. And in in the best case of stegnography, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:57.400 you wouldn't have weird noises or distorted pixels for people 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.120 to see. Yeah, it would just be so subtle that 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.640 you would never pick up on it. And uh and 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.920 that's the reason why you need these disc analysis programs, 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.520 so they can look for things that are below the 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:14.920 perceptive level of human beings. Uh. So again we often 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.480 see the two working together makes a lot of sense. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.679 So let's talk a little bit about the history of steganography, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:28.120 because there are some gloriously awful and bloody stories just 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.040 just reading about them. Yeah, So first, we gotta go 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.320 to ancient Greece, which makes sense. We're talking, you know, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.880 we're using Greek words, so it makes sense that that 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.560 a lot of the early cases involved Greek stories, and 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:45.280 we're gonna be talking a lot about Herodotus. I can 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.640 only do it because I listened to the pronunciation and 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.200 I wrote down a phonetic translation in our notes. That 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.640 is not a joke. Herodotus was a Greek historian in 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.840 the fifth century b c. And wrote a lot about 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.840 Greek history and the history of the surrounding areas of Greece, 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.840 And in fact, his writings were called the Histories. Yeah, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.640 and or at least we have to we have to 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.480 take some of this with a grain of salt, because 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:15.760 legend got mixed up with history quite a bit. So 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.960 in fact, there are some modern accountings that suggest that 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:25.080 some of the familial connections he makes in his stories 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.760 were not necessarily accurate. So um one of the big ones, 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.480 in fact, the first one I have to talk about, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.120 is one of those where the story talks about a 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:41.760 general named Harpagus who sent a staganagram to Cyrus, was 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.640 a king who was going to become the king of 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.120 kings of Persia, Son of Persia, not the Prince of Persia. 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.239 Now that's a video game, which is fun, but not 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.200 not something we actually need to reference here. The story, Yeah, 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.640 the story is far bloodier in fact, which is odd 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:01.400 to think of, depending on which version of Prince of 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.200 Persia you played and how badly you played it. But 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.440 Cyrus was going to be the king of kings of Persia. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.920 So Persia was divided up into several kingdoms, and then 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.560 you had a sort of an over king who saw 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.000 over everybody, kind of like King Arthur in in English 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:24.520 lore Um. So cyrus Um was the grandson, according to Herodotus, 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:31.680 to another king of kings, Ostiagas, and so Harpagus actually 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.040 worked for Ostiagas. So Ostiogus is this king of kings, 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.480 and he has a dream, and in his dream, his 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.560 daughter gives birth to a son, and that son grows 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:47.120 up to depose osti Agus. So first he ends up 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.320 marrying his daughter off to a kind of milk toast 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.480 kind of guy, someone that he thinks is, oh well, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.400 this guy is harmless, so any child they have is 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.200 not going to be a threat to me Um. And 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.680 they have a son named IRUs. According to Herodotus. Again. 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.480 Other modern accounts suggests that Cyrus and Ostiagas were not 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.800 grandfather and grandson. Yeah, they might have been related, but 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.480 not like grandfather and grandson, particularly since Cyrus ended up 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:17.120 marrying um a daughter a Herodotus, which would have made 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.760 he would have married his own aunt, which was not 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.400 common in those times. So I mean possible, but not common. 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.840 So anyway, in the story, Cyrus is the grandson, and 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:36.360 Ostiagas decides Harpagus needs to go out and kill Cyrus. Okay. Harpagas, though, 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.760 does not really relish the thought of spilling royal blood. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.560 So he takes Cyrus and he gives Cyrus to a 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.560 shepherd and says, look after this kid, uh and raise 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.000 him as your own, and I will report back that 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.480 Cyrus is dead. Seems like a really decent guy, at 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.160 least at that point, so he goes back. He reports 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:00.560 that Cyrus has died, and Ostiagus says YEA. Ten years later, 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:05.320 Ostiagus finds out Cyrus is actually alive, so he punishes 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.440 Harpagus in kind of a Shakespearean awful way, and that 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.680 in the story osti Agus gets Harpagus, his son kills 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:19.480 him chops him up, cooks him, serves them to Harpagas 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.439 as a banquet Harpegas and then tells Harpegus, hey, by 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.600 the way, I hope you like your son, because that's 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:30.760 what you're eating. Harpegus supposedly then gathered up the remains 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.800 and gave his son a burial. He was being obedient 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.639 to the king outwardly, but inwardly had decided that he 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.600 had had enough and he wanted revenge, so he wanted 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.000 to report to Cyrus. He He ended up working very 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.879 hard to get other leaders of Persia to turn against 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.840 Ostiagus and wait for just the right time to give 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.440 Cyrus the signal that now is the time to attack. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.119 So he needed to send a message to Cyrus saying 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.080 we're ready to go when you are. But asti August 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.800 had guards all along the way. So how does he 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:12.679 send a message. He gets a bunny bunny hair. Actually, no, 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.040 they're not nearly as cute as bunny rabbits, and this 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.760 hair was not nearly as cute because it was did Yeah, 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:23.640 they they have a guy kill a hair. They cut 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.639 the hair open, they insert the secret message into the 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:32.000 hair's stomach, so the hair back up and a messenger 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.040 disguised as a huntsman brings the hair to Cyrus and says, 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.280 you should cut open this bunny rabbit and get what 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.080 the delicious things inside are. And so Cyrus cuts open 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.680 the stitches, gets the message, sees that it's time to attack, 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:52.679 and that is how, according to Herodotus, Cyrus goes and 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.680 joins a revolution and overthrows Ostia Augus and then Cyrus 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.359 becomes the king. So there's a long way to go 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.520 for that story, but it's important to know all the 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.359 elements to explain why Harpagus was trying to send a 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:08.840 coded message in the first place, or hidden message. I'm 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.160 so glad we have better ways to send hidden messages 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.720 than in the stomachs of rabbits. Now, okay, this is 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.159 Jonathan from the future. I've got a hidden message in 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.119 this image file that says we need to take a 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:30.960 quick break, but we'll be right back. So um, here's 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.720 another one. This is another popular story from Herodotus. This 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:42.080 one involves a tyrant named Histius, which sounds like you're 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.679 strangling a snake. Yeah. Histius who was the ruler of 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:51.760 mild Us, and this guy was really useful to the 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.760 king of Persia. The King of Persia loved Histius and 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.640 decided to invite him back to become a royal advisor. Well, 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.760 that sounds it is pretty good to me. Well at first, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.919 Histories thoughts so too. But then eventually he thought, you know, 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.000 I want to go back to being a tyrant of Maltest. Tyrant, 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.080 by the way, does not necessarily mean evil ruler, but 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:16.800 it did mean like having total authority over a region. Um, 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:18.760 so he said, he thought, I want to go back 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:20.880 to doing what I was doing before. But it would 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.720 be treason for me to deny the king? So how 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.560 do I get around this? And he comes up with 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.679 an even more treason this way to get around it. 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.359 He decides that the best way to get back to 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.879 doing what he was doing before would be to stage 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:42.040 a revolution back home. Uh, and then tell the king, Hey, 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.000 I need to go back there and squash this revolution 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.360 before it gets out of hand, because telling the king 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.639 no is so much less worse than lying to the 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.960 king and tell him. So, he decides he needs to 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.680 send this instruction to his nephew, who was in charge 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:03.040 of maldis Agris. And so how does he send the message, Well, 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.240 he gets a slave which the Greeks had back then, 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.960 and tattoos. He shaves the slave's head, tattoos the message 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.359 on the slave's scalp, then allows the slaves hair to 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:18.440 grow back, then sends the slave to Aristagoras with the 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.840 instruction to tell Aristagoras, Hey, you need to shave me 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.760 and read my head. So that's exactly what happens. Aristagoras 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:29.520 reads the message, starts a revolution against the Persians. Then 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:34.119 Histius tells the king, Hey, this is gonna be a problem, 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.359 so just send me back and I will go and 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.000 squish this right away, and we'll solve this before it 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:41.960 turns into a big problem. And of course they can 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:46.520 go a loyal advisor. Sure. Yeah, So Histius heads on 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.200 his way back. However, there were some folks who were 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:56.199 a little suspicious of Histius and his convenient revolution, and 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.399 so eventually Histaius goes on the run because people are 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:01.520 actually after or him thinking that you know, he's he's 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:07.560 committed treason. Yeah, he has done that thing, and so 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.800 he ends up getting exiled and eventually to an island. 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:15.240 He becomes a pirate for a while, and then he's 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.840 eventually captured by one of the king of Persia's subjects. 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:21.399 Who knows that if he sends his tis back to 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:23.840 the king, the king will pardon him, So he just 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.240 goes ahead and execute his t is right then and there, 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:30.200 since the head of his is to the king saying, hey, 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:32.600 I caught him and killed him for you. And the 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.800 king actually supposedly gave the head of his tis an 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:40.199 honorable burial because he never suspected anything was up. He 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:44.280 didn't believe his is could have committed any kind of 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:52.959 treason against him. So uh, dumb or nice? Not a 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.119 lot of nice stories in ancient Greece. Uh, And then 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.560 you've got another one, another herodotist story, another herodotus story. 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:01.280 I was out to mention it, and then I realized 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:03.760 that I couldn't actually say his name. There was an 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:09.240 exiled Greek named named Demeritus, and uh. He needed to 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.879 warn the king of Sparta, Leonidas that kings er Ses 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:15.480 the first was going to attack them. So he took 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.760 writing tablets, which were wood tablets covered in wax and 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.600 you would scratch a message into the wax, and instead 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.400 he took off all the wax and scratched message into 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:28.479 the wood, and then recovered the tablets and wax so 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:30.320 that they looked like they were blanked tablets, and he 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.639 sent those to the king to warn him. Uh. But 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.760 proposedly no one knew why they were getting these blank tablets. 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:42.240 They didn't necessarily know there was a message. Why are 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:45.639 we getting just we got plenty of tablets and no 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:48.840 one writes anything of use here in Sparta anyway. Yeah, 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:52.480 supposedly the queen, Queen Gorgo figured out what it was, said, 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:53.720 you got you need to take the wax off. I 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:56.280 but there's a message under there and there were um 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.600 but it didn't help them because the Spartans were brutally 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.880