Steganography: how it is used for counter/anti-forensics - Research Paper Example

hare (2009) explains that steganography works by replacing bits of unused or useless data in regular computer files such as HTML, graphics, text, and sound, with bits of different, invisible information. The hidden information can be an image, plaintext, or ciphertext. Ec-Council (2009) also explains that unlike encryption whereby there is evidence that communication has taken place, steganography conceals the fact that a message is even being sent. For extra security, steganography can be used to conceal information in an encrypted file, in such a way that even if one decrypts the file, the message will remain hidden.

Steganography can be traced back to ancient Greece, where common practices entailed engraving messages in wooden tablets and plastering them with wax, and tattooing a shaved head of a messenger, allowing his hair grow back, and then cutting it off once he arrived at his contact point. Today, one can use steganographic techniques to conceal secret information in digital video and audio files, digital image folders, as well as other digital media with some replaceable redundant bits that can to conceal secret information.

Simmons first came up with the idea of steganography in the beginning of the 1980s while he discussed inmates’ problem. He talked about a situation whereby two inmates in different cells have to correspond with each other inoffensively without arousing any suspicion. Simmons used the notion of subliminal channels in place of steganography, and this was one of the first attempts into steganography as a field (Potdar1, et al., 2006). Steganography has been used for both legitimate purposes such as digital fingerprinting, watermarking, and copyrighting, and for illegitimate purposes, one of the illegitimate purposes being when a person is attempting to steal data, whereby he/she hides it in another file and sends it as an innocuous file transfer or email.

People also use steganography to transfer/hide ponographic data, other use it