STEGANOGRAPHY

By Aman

Arora

Steganography is the act of hiding or concealing a text, image, file or video within
another text, image, file or video.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRYPTOGRAPHY AND STEGANOGRAPHY ?

Steganography takes Cryptography (The act of encrypting a message with an intent of
protecting the content of message) to a next level such that it is nearly impossible to
know that a secret message is being sent.
The most important advantage of Steganography over cryptography is that it doesnt
seek attention. An encrypted message no matter how unbreakable will arouse interest
and attract people. Steganography on the other end is also concerned with the fact that
nobody knows that a secret message is being sent.
BASIC PRINCIPLE OF STEGANOGRAPHY
Steganography generally works by replacing or modifying the bits of the useless or
unused data in the files (Images, Video, text etc).
Any type of information - encrypted or non-encrypted, text or image can be hidden using
Steganography.
Steganography is generally used along with the encryption for better security. Also an
Encrypted file may also have hidden information using Steganography so that even if
the data is decrypted the information is still safe.

This is an era of digital Steganography in which we hide the digital data using
Steganography but Steganography is an old practice that has been in use for years
now.
Steganography plays a crucial role when we need to send a message across the
internet. Media files are generally used for steganographic purposes because of their
large size so that it becomes difficult for the third party to interpret the message.
Example of simple Steganography
The sender may adjust the color of every 50th pixel of an image in such a way that each
50th pixel corresponds to an alphabet. The changes are made in such a way that the
changes are not visible, that is the hidden information now wouldnt be visible to person
who is not specifically looking for it.
Other ways can also be used for Steganography; most common techniques are

Delay in packets sent across the network can be used encode data.
Making text the same color as background in images
Concealing the data in the puzzles. One need to firstly solve the puzzle then find
the hidden data and then decrypt it in order to get the original data.

APPLICATIONS OF STEGANOGRAPHY

Steganography is used by modern printers. The printers add yellow dots that are
barely visible to each page. These dots not only contain printer serial number but
also contain the date and time of printing.
Used by intelligence services to send information to agents stationed in other
countries.