“Sometimes the best hiding place is the one that’s in plain sight.”

— Stephenie Meyer, The Host

In today’s technology-driven era, digital communication has become an integral part of our daily lives. As such, data security has become an important concern to ensure the protection of sensitive information. This is where steganography, the science of covertly concealing data in plain sight, comes into play. Take a moment to compare two seemingly identical images below. Despite their initial appearance, they are not the same. One conceals embedded information using steganography methods, distinguishing it from the other. While it may seem indecipherable, embedded data usually stands out like a beacon.

Steganography takes various forms, including hiding information within images, texts, videos, and more (What is Steganography, n.d.). Historically, steganography was born from the need for covert communication during war. The term steganography was first used by Johannes Trithemius in his Steganiographia, a book on cryptography and steganography, cloaked as a book of magic (Fridrich et al., 2004). However, before this, it was first used in Greece to hide messages on a person’s scalp (Petitcolas et al., 1999).

Today, steganography techniques are used to hide data in both physical and digital contexts in a way that is unperceivable to observers. Some common examples of physical steganography include microdots, image-hiding, and invisible ink. Notably, microdots are interesting as they are produced through photographic methods, with each dot containing embedded information.

Digital Steganography

Least Significant Bit

As all things evolve, so did steganography, and the product of this evolution was digital steganography. A common method of hiding information digitally is the Least Significant Bit (LSB) technique (Podder et al., 2022). This method involves manipulating the least weighted bit in a binary number i.e., the least significant bit in image or audio files. By doing this, one can change the values of these bits and store information in them without majorly changing the image or audio file. Generally, users of this method hide information in noisy images i.e., images that have unwanted electrical signals disrupting them.

Point-and-click steganography

Another way of concealing data in digital files is to use point-and-click steganography to embed and extract hidden information in digital files (Goodin, 2014). This is a user-friendly and graphical method that conceals information without the need for coding. Typically, individuals who do not have extensive information about steganography use this technique to encrypt data. In the image below, twitter user Dan Goodin has embedded the words “no, it’s security through obscurity” through unicode representations in the original tweet. This explains the strange fonts and spacing seen in the tweet.

Audio Steganography

One of the most intriguing method of steganography is converting an image into a sound file, which when later analyzed with a spectrogram, visuals of frequencies, reveals the image . This method is largely used by artists to hide images in their songs. Below is a spectrogram of a hidden image encoded as sound in the song “My Violent Heart” by Nine Inch Nails. (Steganography, n.d.)

As almost everyone today is constantly immersed in information, the prevalence of hidden messages is both fascinating and concerning. Consequently, despite the significant role of technology in our lives, the awareness of digital steganography remains surprisingly low. This is similar to spending extensive time with someone yet knowing little about them – a parallel that underscores our limited understanding of this covert digital practice. 

Social steganography

On the topic of the role technology plays in everyday life, a new form of hiding messages known as social steganography has become increasingly popular in the past few years. Primarily adopted by teenagers, this technique serves as a means of communication among friends, without parents’ knowledge (Boyd, 2010). This technique offers a compelling illustration of how individuals skillfully navigate and utilize technology to achieve their communication goals in the present day.

Steganography in writing

Writers too can employ steganographic method for various purposes, from secretive communication to inviting readers to decipher concealed messages within their works. Consider artist Taylor Swift’s pre-album release message – not a direct instance of steganography but illustrative of the underlying mechanisms.

From the previously mentioned examples, it is evident that in the hidden folds of digital art, secret messages, and cultural preservation, steganography exists as the invisible brushstroke painting stories beyond the surface – an indication of the fusion of technology, creativity, and the art of concealed communication in our ever-evolving digital landscape.

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References

Boyd, D. (2010). Social Steganography: Learning to Hide in Plain Sight. zephoria. https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/08/23/social-steganography-learning-to-hide-in-plain-sight.html

Fridrich, J., Goljan, M. & Soukal, D. (2004). Searching for the stego-key. Proc of Security, Steganography and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents. 5306. 70-82.  10.1117/12.521353

Goodin, D. (2014, August 5). How to stash secret messages in tweets using point-and-click steganography. Arstechnica. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/how-to-stash-secret-messages-in-tweets-using-point-and-click-steganography/

Meyer, S. (2008). The Host (p. 494). goodreads.

Petitcolas, F. A. P., Anderson, R. J., & Kuhn, M. G. (1999). Information hiding-a survey. Proceedings of the Ieee, 87(7). https://doi.org/10.1109/5.771065

Podder, A., Roy, P., & Roy, S. (2022). Steganography techniques – an overview. International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 323-327, 323–327. https://doi.org/10.32628/CSEIT228642

Spectrogram. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrogram

Steganography. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#

What is Steganography? Definition and explanation. (n.d.). Kaspersky. https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-steganography