A Discovery of Hidden Data: Cryptographic Concepts

A security analyst discovered data such as images and word documents hidden within different types of files

Steganography is an encryption method that describes the hiding of data within another data. The hidden data and the data that is hiding it can be of any types - audio, images, video or text files. Steganography allows sensitive data or information to be protected or hidden (not easily detected). Steganography uses two data objects - the message and the carrier. The message is the sensitive information to be hidden while the carrier is the data that is hiding the message.

An example of steganography is in a situation whereby watermark is added to an online text document in order to prevent it from being downloaded by unauthorized users. In this case, a text is hidden in another text.

Which of the following cryptographic concepts describes what was discovered? A. Symmetric encryption B. Non-repudiation C. Steganography D. Hashing

Answer: (c) Steganography Explanation: Steganography is an encryption method that describes the hiding of data within another data. The hidden data and the data that is hiding it can be of any types - audio, images, video or text files. Steganography allows sensitive data or information to be protected or hidden (not easily detected). Steganography uses two data objects - the message and the carrier. The message is the sensitive information to be hidden while the carrier is the data that is hiding the message.