Clandestine Message Passing in Virtual Environments

Virtual Environments (VEs) present a new challenge for governmentofficials attempting to monitor computer networks for terrorist communication.VEs bring new dimensions to online communication through visual appearance and state maintaining servers. In this thesis, various VEs will be explored tostudy what current abilities and usage patterns exist. Once characteristicsof the VEs are established, clandestine methods for passing information willbe developed along with proof of concepts. Visual cues, steganography andautonomous bots will be examined. Monitoring techniques are then discussed to attempt observation and analysis of this information at various levels. Theexpectation is that these results will improve awareness and solidify anunderstanding of the more surreptitious capabilities present in thesenetworked environments.