ITSE202

CYBERSECURITY
II
LECTURE IV – Steganography
 Rise of The Internet
 Since the rise of internet one of the most important factors of
information technology.

 Now a days internet became common use. As the use of

internet increases providing security to the information is also
important thing.
Information Security
Information security means protecting information systems
from unauthorized access, use, disruption, modification,
recording or destruction.
Methods Of Provide Security To Information
We have two methods to provide security to the information.
They are:-

 Cryptography

 Steganography
What Is Cryptography?
 Cryptography is the study of hiding information and it is used
when communicating over an untrusted medium such as
internet, where information needs to be protected from
other third parties.
Problems In Cryptography
 Encrypt the message, but do not hide the message.
Suspicious (doubtful)

 This problems can be overcome by Steganography.

What Is Steganography?
 Steganography means hiding information in other
information.

 The word Steganography is derived from the Greek words

“STEGOS” means ‘cover’ and “GRAFIA” means ‘writing’
defining it as ‘covered writing’.

 Anyone else viewing this message will fail to know it

contains hidden/encrypted data.
Types Of Steganography
 Encoding Secret Messages in Text

 Encoding Secret Messages in Audio

 Encoding Secret Messages in Images

 Encoding Secret Messages in videos

Text Steganography
 Steganography in text files can be accomplished through
various techniques:--

 Line-shift encoding
 Word-shift encoding
 Feature encoding
Text Steganography: Example
 There are souls beneath that water. Fixed in slimethey
speak their piece, end it, and start again: Sullen were we in
the air made sweet by the Sun; in the glory of his shining our
hearts poureda bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun; sullen
we lie forever in this ditch. This litany they gargle in their
throatsas if they sand, but lacked the words and pitch.

 What is the hidden message above?

Audio Steganography
 Audio steganography embeds the secret message into the
music files having formats.

The different methods are:

 Low-bit encoding
 Phase coding
 Spread spectrum

Want to learn more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MigwaAjLKs
Image Steganography
 Images are composed of dots called PIXELS.

 8-bit and 24-bit per pixel image files.

 Each pixel gets its own color by combining percentages of

red, green and blue(RGB).

 For 8bit each of these colors has value from 0 to 225.

Want learn more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNo58UiIMKU
Image of a tree with
a steganographically
hidden image.
Video Steganography
 Video Steganography is a technique to hide any kind of files
in any extension into a carrying Video file.
Advantages
 It is used in the way of hiding not the information but the
password to reach that information.

 Difficult to detect. Only receiver can detect.

 Can be applied differently in digital image, audio and video

file.

 It can be done faster with the large number of softwares.

Disadvantages
 Huge number of data, huge file size, so someone can
suspect about it.

 If this technique is gone in the wrong hands like hackers,

terrorist, criminals then this can be very much dangerous for
all.
Steganography tools
 Anubis
 BMP Secrets
 DarkCryptTC
 OpenPuff
 OpenStego
 StegFS
 StegoShare

Other tools:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography_tools

12 best steganography tools:

http://www.topbestalternatives.com/best-steganography-
software/
Conclusion
 Though Steganography is not implemented in wider ways
but it can be the best security tool.

 The main problem of today’s world is to secure their data

confidentially, the techniques used currently are not
considered the best which can only be replaced by
Steganography.
References
SEEPANSHU RAJPUT, (2020). Cryptography in Network
Security. International Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET).
Cisco Network Academy, Cybersecurity Essentials,
Cybersecurity
P3: Principles, Practices and Processes, Obscuring Data.