Steganography & the Art of Deception: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

Ever since the beginning of human civilization, mankind had always confidential things to hide or share secretly. Endless methods were devised; an ingenious one is called steganography which refers to secret writing. In essence, steganography is the science of hiding secret data into innocuous-looking mediums in such a way that only the communicating parties are aware of this trick. Steganography maybe started during the Stone Age and greatly evolved during the computer age. Currently, it has many techniques, methods, and applications, making it worth having a closer look at. This paper presents a comprehensive overview on steganography and on its different techniques that have been proposed in the literature during the last decades. It additionally sheds the light on its history before and after the computer age, its various models, requirements, and processes.