Steganography

Another good form of encryption is steganography which is the act of hiding data within text, graphic files, or audio files.

The purpose of this method is so that nobody will know that there is a private message inside the medium (photo, document, etc.) because it is hidden.

Let’s say Bob wants to send private messages to Steve over a public forum read by numerous people. Bob grabs a picture, puts a hidden message inside and uploads it to the website. nobody knows the message is there except for Steve, which is able to save the picture to his computer and read the message hidden inside.

Forensic examiners will need to be looking at each individual file to determine if steganography was used. So for example if you have 1000 pictures, they will need to go through each and every one to determine which ones have steganography and which ones do not.

Using steganography is as easy as downloading the right software from the internet.

I started up by downloading one of the more popular freeware tools out now: F5, then moved to a tool called SecurEngine, which hides text files within larger text files, and lastly a tool that hides files in MP3s called MP3Stego. I also tested one commercial steganography product, Steganos Suite. These tools may contain backdoors as with all encryption programs therefor should not be used with data you are trying to hide from any party that may hold the decryption key.