SteganoGraphy.

Essay by sb83University, Bachelor's October 2003

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Steganography

Steganography in Greek means covered or secret writing and is a long practiced form of hiding information. It is the art of concealing the information within seemingly innocuous carriers. Steganography in an essence camouflages a message to hide its existence and make it seem invisible thus concealing the fact that a message is being sent altogether. According to the dictionary, steganography (also known as "steg" or "stego") is "the art of writing in cipher, or in characters, which are not intelligible except to persons who have the key; cryptography". In computer terms, steganography has evolved into the practice of hiding a message within a larger one in such a way that others cannot discern the presence or contents of the hidden message. In contemporary terms, steganography has evolved into a digital strategy of hiding a file in some form of multimedia, such as an image, an audio file (like a .wav

or mp3) or even a video file.

Steganography is really nothing new as it has been around since the times of ancient Rome. Our earliest records of steganography were recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus and date back to Greek times. When the Greek tyrant Histiaeus was held as a prisoner by king Darius in Susa during the 5th century B.C, he had to send a secret message to his son-in-law Aristagoras in Miletus. Histiaeus shaved the head of a slave and tattooed a message on his scalp. When the slave's hair had grown long enough he was dispatched to Miletus. Then there were the ancient Romans who used Invisible inks. They used to write between lines using invisible inks based on readily-available substances such as fruit juices, urine and milk. When heated, the invisible inks would darken, and become legible.

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A German monk, by the name...