Digital data hiding techniques for images are explored, analyzed, attacked and countered. Understanding the limitations of these methods provides for the construction of more robust methods that can better survive manipulations and attacks.

INFORMATION HIDING: STEGANOGRAPHY AND WATERMARKING - ATTACKS AND COUNTERMEASURES presents important research contributions in three fundamental areas: investigation of data hiding and labeling techniques (steganography and watermarking), attacks against steganography and watermarked information, and countermeasures to such attacks. With the proliferation of multimedia and concerns of privacy on the Internet, such research has become even more pressing. Information is collected by numerous organizations and the nature of digital media allows for the exact duplication of material with no notification that the material has been copied. The more information placed in the public's reach on the Internet, the more owners of such information need to protect themselves from unwanted surveillance, theft, and false representation and reproduction. Systems to analyze techniques for uncovering hidden information and recovering seemingly destroyed information are thus of great importance to many groups, including law enforcement authorities in computer forensics and digital traffic analysis.

Techniques for hiding information have existed for centuries. Methods include communication via invisible inks, microdots, covert channels, and spread spectrum channels. The techniques explored by the authors involved embedding information within digital media, specifically digital images. The authors analyze the limitations of these digital methods, which can in turn be used to devise attacks. The goal of these attacks is to expose the existence of a secret message or to render a digital watermark unusable. Finally, in assessing these attacks, countermeasures are developed to assist in protecting digital watermarking systems. Understanding the limitations of these methods will allow the construction of more robust methods that can better survive manipulations and attacks.

INFORMATION HIDING: STEGANOGRAPHY AND WATERMARKING - ATTACKS AND COUNTERMEASURES is suitable for a secondary text in a graduate level course, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.

Organization of the Book

Chapter 1: Introduction provides an overview of information hiding techniques and a brief history of steganography. Contributions of the authors' research is described to provide the setting for the remainder of the book.

Chapter 2 Exploring Steganography in Images: This chapter explains some concepts of image-based steganography and digital watermarking. Methods for hiding information in images are introduced and classified. This chapter also introduces various tools used to embed information in images and illustrates results.

Chapter 3 Steganalysis: Attacks Against Hidden Data: In this chapter, attacks against hidden information are revealed as the art of steganalysis. Terminology and principles of steganalytic techniques are discussed. Attack techniques may apply to both steganography and watermarking tools, so the emphasis here is on embedded or hidden information rather than differentiating between steganography and digital watermarking.

Chapter 4 Countermeasures to Attacks Against Digital Watermarks: Given the available knowledge of attacks, how do we protect the digital media we have? This chapter looks at how to strengthen information hiding techniques in light of various attacks. Tradeoffs in perceptibility, bandwidth, and survivability of hidden information are also investigated. Alternatives to digital watermarking techniques are explored as countermeasures to distortion attacks against carriers and means to recover damaged watermarks are illustrated.

Appendices: Several appendices are included to provide information to supplement the research discussed in this book.

Appendix A provides a discussion and illustration of hiding information in TCP/IP packet headers.

Appendix B provides a glossary of methods used to distort stego-images based on the processing instructions and descriptions from the software used to perform the manual distortion tests in Chapter 3.

---

Errata:

Page	Line	Description
68	4	Reference to an Appendix E for more details about the Picturemarc Tests. This appendix does not exist in the book as the summary information is sufficient for explanation. Apparently this reference to Appendix E was overlooked when the book was being revised.

---

|JJTC Home |Neil |Steganography |Steganography Tools |FoxPro |Book Store |
 

---

Send comments to nfj(at)jjtc(dot)com.
Copyright, ©1995-2012, Neil F. Johnson. All Rights Reserved.