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Blurring Images Not So Secure

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the release-the-blue-dot dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dheera Venkatraman explains in a webpage how an attacker might be able to extract personal information such as check or credit card numbers, from images blurred with a mosaic effect, potentially exposing the data behind hundreds of images of blurred checks found online, and provides a ficticious example. While much needs to be developed to apply such an algorithm to real photographic images, he offers a simple, yet obvious solution: cover up the sensitive information, don't blur it."

20 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Japanese porn by Boccaccio · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will this work on Japanese porn too? My friend wants to know.

    1. Re:Japanese porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Only on Slashdot would this man's question get an informative reply. I now remember why I've wasted 9 years of my life browsing this site. Thanks!

    2. Re:Japanese porn by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny
      Translation aside, looks like it needs `gnome-config --cflags gnome` instead of `gtk-config --cflags`
      in Makefile at a bare minimum.
      And a lot of cleanup in general.
      Witness the power of Open Source as it is unleashed in Real Time when faced with a pr0n related problem !
      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    3. Re:Japanese porn by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Will this work on Japanese porn too?

      Only if the number of possible cunts is fixed and known.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re:Japanese porn by TheoMurpse · · Score: 2, Funny

      Only the unwashed masses come for those. The truly educated elite? Well, we come for the Natalie Portman hot grits jokes.

      Speaking of Slashdot memes, do GNAA trolls still show up? I haven't browsed below +4 in a year, so I'm not entirely sure.

  2. and please... by macadamia_harold · · Score: 4, Funny

    While much needs to be developed to apply such an algorithm to real photographic images, he offers a simple, yet obvious solution: cover up the sensitive information, don't blur it."

    And please, when you cover the information with black bars, use Adobe Acrobat. (this solution brought to you by the CIA)

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
  3. Sqinting Works by bmsleight · · Score: 4, Funny

    Squinting your eyes also works.

    1. Re:Sqinting Works by Oddscurity · · Score: 4, Funny

      Either that, or you end up seeing a 3D schooner.

      --
      Indeed!
    2. Re:Sqinting Works by Emetophobe · · Score: 4, Funny
      Squinting your eyes also works.
      What else would you squint?
  4. old news - I see this on TV every day. by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Funny

    damn right. I see this happening on CSI all the time, the licence plate, blurred, reflected in a window, with someone standing in front of it.. just 'clean up the image', and bobs your uncle - one licence plate revealed clear as day. :)

    1. Re:old news - I see this on TV every day. by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's hilarious every time they do this. They start with a picture of some guy's face from 500 feet away that looks like a big skin-colored blur, and by the time they're done enhancing it, you can see right up the guy's nose. Of course, they want to keep it realistic: to show that you can only enhance an image so much, his nose hairs are slightly pixelated.

    2. Re:old news - I see this on TV every day. by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Funny
      Of course, they want to keep it realistic:

      Whichis why it uses the authentic photpenhance sound effect as the image appears in rows, like dot matrix printer. Us imaging professionals see that every day.

      The weird thing is that they must have a whole staff of highly qualified computer geeks who do their effects who could tell them this was bullshit.

    3. Re:old news - I see this on TV every day. by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Funny

      CSI is the *worst* program on the TV for anything forensic related. And I kid you not, the Queensland police in Australia used it as a teaching aid on what to do. I shit you not.
  5. how about a big DUH..... by p51d007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anytime I post a picture, such as a car with a license plate, I BLANK out the numbers/letters with three colors, a block of white, then a block of silver, then a block of black. Not layers, just the colors.

    1. Re:how about a big DUH..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I am confused as to how this three-color method protects any better than just applying that final black bar.

    2. Re:how about a big DUH..... by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Funny

      He left the opacity slider at 80%

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  6. Hand Written Checks by Joebert · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is precisely why I hand write all my checks with a sharpe marker, here's an Example.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  7. You're new here, aren't you? by KH2002 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're new here, aren't you?

  8. Re:Squinting Works by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ask the guys with talented girlfrends. ;)

    --
    Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion