CyberBear

Hiding Data in “Plain” Sight

The ancient Greeks are alleged to have tattooed messages on the scalps of messengers. The messenger’s hair would grow in and then be dispatched, traveling with their message cleverly disguised. While that may be the origin, today’s methods are far more difficult to identify.

A few classic examples of are stereograms (where you cross your eyes to reveal some type of “3D” image), codes built into sheets of music, wear patterns on old paper, invisible ink, and hidden text in a simple word document.

Today’s cyber concerns

Modern steganography is thought of as data hidden inside digital images. In recent history computer viruses have been transferred through malicious payloads imbedded in images. The classic attack vector was to attack an image of a cute cat to a chain email, and upon clicking on the image the payload would be released.