SteganographySlide 2What is Steganography?How was it first used? Ex.#1Ex.#2Ex.#3Ex.#4Ex.#5How is it being used in the modern world? Ex.#1Slide 10Ex.#3Ex.#4Online ExampleConclusionResources and DownloadsSteganographyPresentation By Marcus AlcazarITE 100 0930Northern Virginia Community College2008Steganography•What is Steganography?•How was it first used?•How is it being used in the modern world?•Online Example•ConclusionWhat is Steganography?•Steganography was derived from the Greek language and literally means “covered writing”.•Steganography is the art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file.•Steganography has been used throughout history as a secretive way of passing along important information with almost no chance of compromise.How was it first used? Ex.#1 In the 5th Century B.C. Histiaeus, a Roman official, shaved the head of a messenger and tatooed on it a message encouraging Aristagoras of Miletus to revolt against the King of Persia. After the messenger’s hair grew back, he was then dispatched. This technique would not be very useful today because along with the time factor of growing back the hair, deleting and discarding the message would be difficult and immoral.Ex.#2 In 480 B.C. a Greek named Demaratus, living in Persia, sent a message to the Spartans warning them of an invasion by King Xerxes of Persia. Demaratus obtained two wax tablets, scraped off the wax, and inscribed his message on the wooden base of the tablets. He then covered the message with new wax to make the tablets look unused.Ex.#3•Born in 23 A.D. Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer and philosopher, used the milk of a rare plant to write potentially invisible messages. The milk was used as an ink , and after drying, it left virtually no residue. The message, when received, was held close to a flame where then the carbon condensed milk would darken and reveal the message.Ex.#4•In 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, soldiers on both sides used invisible ink to write hidden messages in letters of unimportance such as personal letters or lists. The only problem was that any light source could reveal the message and consequently at times, was revealed by accident.Ex.#5Between World War I and World War II, Professor Zapp of Germany created the microdot as a form of hiding sensitive information in formal letters and documents. The microdot was a highly detailed image or text shrunken to the size of a dot or period. These micro pictures could then be observed and read with a simple microscope. One of the earliest detections of microdots came about due to the noticeably shiny film of the microdot.How is it being used in the modern world? Ex.#1Steganography methods today have expanded greatly with the rise of computer technology. It is being used by employees of large corporations to leak vital resource data out of company networks undetected. Employees embed secured documents, containing the company’s data, within the least significant bits (LSB) of an image, sound or video file. The file can then be attached to an outgoing email, past the company’s firewalls, and out of the internal network.Ex.#2 Another form of Steganography being used today has been developed by using the letter spacing in laser printers. Laser printers can be adjusted to create spacing differentials between characters as small as 1/300th of an inch. The spaces can then be used as a form of binary where the regular spaces would represent a 0 and the adjusted spaces would represent a 1. These messages would be undetectable to the human eye, but obviously could only be distributed physically.Ex.#3 •British parliament and other governments have been known to program word processors to encode the identity of the writer within the word spacing of documents. This was done to trace the disloyal who were leaking cabinet information. Methods like this were practiced throughout the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.Ex.#4 •Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been thought to use steganographic methods of communicating by embedding messages in pornographic image and sound files. Osama Bin Laden has also been suspected of using steganographic methods during broadcasted speeches and video recorded interviews. Possibilities were messages hidden within symbols in the background of the videos or in the audio. These suspections , though very likely and possible, are still yet proven.Online Example•http://www.defendingthenet.com/stgpic.htm•http://www.defendingthenet.com/downloads/steg.zipConclusion •Steganography, in my opinion, will always be used as a way of concealing information. It is being used today as an efficient method of breaching security and stealing vital information from businesses and large corporations. It is now suspected of being used by terrorists around the world to pass along information that would be damaging to our society. (cont.)Due to the effectiveness and persistence of Steganography throughout history, I believe Steganography should be accepted as a dangerous and viable method of breaching security. I also believe Steganography should be viewed as a highly efficient way of communicating information undetected between individuals around the world.Resources and Downloadshttp://www.castlecops.com/a5825-Steganography_Your_Eyes_Do_Deceive_You.htmlhttp://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/stenganography/552.phpDownload Stegdetect at Outguess.org or download the example “Rays over the Ocean”