Steganography Research Paper

Steganography: The Modern Day Invisible Ink
Liza Bowlin
CINT 106
Professor Carole Bachmann
Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana

As a child, were you intrigued by the idea of sending a secret message to your best friend? Perhaps you were fascinated by the thought of using an invisible ink pen. If so, then I suggest learning about steganography. According to the online Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of steganography is the art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file (Merriam-Webster, 2011). People can use many different techniques for steganography, using it for a variety of reasons. Steganography has been used for many years in forms such
Governments may want to use it to for covert missions. They can let their troops in a different area know what the next move should be in a war. Criminals might also use steganography. Some people think that steganography may have been a tool used by the people that planned the attacks on 9-11. Also, some people think there may have been hidden messages in the videos that were circulating that Osama bin Laden appeared in (Kessler, 2001). Appallingly, child pornographers may use steganography to hide files. A positive use for steganography would be for artists and photographers who want to make sure their copyrighted materials do not get stolen is to add a watermark to their
Steganalysis is the art of detecting and breaking steganography (Kessler, 2001). One such program is StegDetect, created by Niels Provos. This program will only detect data in JPG files, making it extremely limited (Steganography, 2001). There is also a website that can help detect isolated examples at www.guillermito2.net. With so many programs available to use to hide data, it makes it extremely difficult to detect the hidden data. The first step in steganography detection is to have suspicion that there is even a hidden message in the data at all. Next you need to find the right software to find the hidden message. And finally knowing the encryption algorithm used in the first place. As you can see, steganalysis is not an easy task.
The increase in the use of computers has made it extremely easy to send a secret message. Much easier than finding someone who will let you shave their head and tattoo their scalp! With so many options to hide a message, let us just hope that more people use it for the right reasons, rather than the wrong