Steganography Case

Pat Shull

Professor: John Knight

Introduction to Forensic

25 November, 2012

Steganography

Hiding files, comments, information, or messages within other forms of media and sentences is known as Steganography. There are several different software packages that will perform this task for you. Many different kinds of organizations use this process for several different reasons. It is also used to pass information from one individual to another. The history of steganography has evolved from the Ancient Roman times. How it is used, and who uses it is what can determine if it is good or bad.

As stated earlier, the process of hiding information has been around since Roman times. Hiding information in Roman times was very simple. They would write text on stone tablets and pour wax on top of the message. This would hide the message so that it would not even be seen. The receiver would then scrape the wax off of the stone and read the message. It has probably been used in every war that has ever been fought. There are also several forms in which to hide a message, such as just using the first letter of words to spell out a message. Now it has evolved so that someone can hide information in a picture or video and send it over the internet. The receiver can then use the software and a passphrase to see the hidden message. This would be useful if someone would like to copyright or authenticate their work. It can also be used for communication between individuals and organizations. There are reports that persecuted religious minorities use steganography to embed messages for the groups within images that are posted to know Web sites.(1)( (Westphal)

Some of the software available to hide messages in pictures or videos are listed below:

* InThePicture - This will encrypt files and messages into redundant space in Windows Bitmap image files.

* Invisible Secrets - It will hide your private data into innocent loking files, like pictures, or web pages. It also offers encryption algorithms; a password management solution and a real-random password generator; a shredder that helps you destroy beyond recover files.

* JPHIDE and JPSEEK - Allows you to hide a file in a jpeg visual image. This software is special because it can hide a file so that it is impossible to prove that the host file contains a hidden file.

* Stego - You can hide and recover encrypted data in your GIF files.(1)

Many of the software packages available can be used to find messages as well as hide them. Most use password protection for the sender and the receiver. Tools used to detect steganography and destroy it is known as steganalysis. With some software, there is a possibility to send messages over the internet without being spotted by a third party. (COTSE)

Some of the good things that steganography could be used for is watermarking images for copyright protection. It can also be used as a way to make a substituted for a none-way