Steganography Essay Research Paper I INTRODUCTIONWhile Encryption

Steganography Essay, Research Paper

I. INTRODUCTION

While Encryption is detectable and a target for questions by the government

as well as hackers, Steganography takes it one step further and hides the

message within an encrypted message or other mediums; such as images, making it

virtually impossible to detect. It is a method related to the art of hiding a

secret message within a larger one in such a way that the unwanted person cannot

make out the presence or contents of the hidden message being sent. It can be

hidden in a picture or a sound file.

Most communication channels like telephone lines and radio broadcasts

transmit signals, which are always followed by some kind of, noise. This noise

can be replaced by a secret signal that has been changed into a form that is not

detectable from noise without knowledge of a secret key and this way, the secret

signal can be transmitted undetectable. [1]

A. Purpose of this paper

The purpose of this paper is to introduce steganography by explaining what it

is and how it works in conjunction with cryptography; provide a brief history;

note on the types of software programs available and how effective they are.

B. Body

First, I will define stenography, along with cryptography and digital

watermarking. I will also discuss the differences between the two. Second, I

will discuss briefly the history of steganography. Finally, I will review

several different software applications available that provide steganography,

how they are implemented and discuss any failures that may occur.

C. Conclusion

I will review the topics, which were discussed and give my personal opinion

on a particular software programs that I tried out.

II. STEGANOGRAPHY

A. Definition

Steganography comes from the Greek word Steganos meaning covered or secret,

basically hidden writing. Steganography is a non-cryptographic technique for

hiding data in the natural noise component of some other signal. Steganography

simply takes one piece of information and hides it within another. It uses

computer files (images, sounds recordings, even disks) which contain unused or

insignificant areas of data. Invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement,

digital signatures, covert channels, and spread spectrum communications also use

Steganography. Steganography takes advantage of these areas, replacing them with

information (encrypted mail, for instance). The least significant bits (LSBs) of

most digitized signals; music or images for instance; are randomly distributed.

You can change these bits to anything you like without noticeably changing the

music or images.

Cryptography disguises the text of the message but doesn.t hide the fact

that it is doing so. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a very strong cryptographic

tool. Its popularity doesn’t stem from the fact that nobody knows how to break

the system other than by a brute-force attack (which is a prerequisite for any

good cryptosystem). PGP became popular because it is extremely well designed,

fast, and has an excellent key management. There are many cryptographic

algorithms as strong as the one used in PGP, but PGP’s popularity and free

availability made it a de facto standard for secure electronic communications

all over the world. [2]

Digital watermarking which is a special technique of creating invisible

digital marks in images and audio files that carry copyright information. These

marks can be detected by special programs that can derive a lot of useful

information from the watermark: when the file was created, who holds the

copyright, how to contact the author etc. As you know tons of copyrighted

materials are reproduced, i.e. stolen on the Net every day so this technology

might be useful if you are a designer.

B. History

Steganography dates back to ancient Greece. During ancient Greek wars, if a

solder needed to notify his leader that he had information on enemies planning

to attack at a certain place and time, he would take a blank tablet write the

message then cover the tablet with wax. This was a way to conceal the

information as he passed through inspections. [3]

Another way they used to send hidden messages was to shave the messenger.s

head then tattoo the information. Once his hair had grown enough to cover the

message, he was then sent on his way to deliver the message. Of course, he had

to have his hair shaved again for the message to be revealed then let his hair

grow back.

During World War II, the Germans developed the microdot. A secret message was

photographically reduced to the size of a period, and affixed as the dot for the

letter ‘i’ or other punctuation on a paper containing a written message.

Microdots permitted the transmission of large amounts of printed data, including

technical drawings, and the fact of the transmission

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