Steganography
2. Steganography2.1 DefinitionThe word steganography literally means covered writing as derived from Greek. It includes a vast array of methods of secret communications that conceal the very existence of the message. Among these methods are invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement (other than the cryptographic methods of permutation and substitution), digital signatures, covert channels and spread-spectrum communications. Steganography is the art of concealing the existence of information within seemingly innocuous carriers. Steganography can be viewed as akin to cryptography. Both have been used throughout recorded history as means to protect information. At times these two technologies seem to converge while the objectives of the two differ. Cryptographic techniques "scramble" messages so if intercepted, the messages cannot be understood. Steganography, in an essence, "camouflages" a message to hide its existence and make it seem "invisible" thus concealing the fact that a message is being sent altogether. An encrypted message may draw suspicion while an invisible message will not [JDJ01]. |
Defined
David Kahn places steganography and cryptography in a table to differentiate against the types and counter methods used. Here security is defined as methods of "protecting" information where intelligence is defined as methods of "retrieving" information [Kahn67]: Steganography has its place in security. It is not intended to replace cryptography but supplement it. Hiding a message with steganography methods reduces the chance of a message being detected. However, if that message is also encrypted, if discovered, it must also be cracked (yet another layer of protection). |
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