Which concept involves hiding information inside another object for covert communication, commonly using little change to cover media?

Which concept involves hiding information inside another object for covert communication, commonly using little change to cover media?

• A. Encryption
• B. Steganography
• C. Digital Forensics
• D. Data Masking

Answer: (B)

Hiding information inside another object for covert communication while keeping the cover media looking almost unchanged is steganography. The goal is to embed a secret payload within a file (like an image, audio, or video) in a way that the alterations are so subtle they’re not noticeable, so the hidden message goes undetected. A common example is encoding data into the least significant bits of image pixels, which can carry covert information with minimal perceptible change to the image. This differs from encryption, which simply transforms the message into ciphertext without concealing its existence inside another object. Data masking alters data values to protect privacy, not to conceal messages within a file. Digital forensics, meanwhile, is about uncovering and analyzing digital evidence, not hiding information. Steganography is the technique that matches the idea of covertly embedding data within ordinary media.

Hiding information inside another object for covert communication while keeping the cover media looking almost unchanged is steganography. The goal is to embed a secret payload within a file (like an image, audio, or video) in a way that the alterations are so subtle they’re not noticeable, so the hidden message goes undetected. A common example is encoding data into the least significant bits of image pixels, which can carry covert information with minimal perceptible change to the image.

This differs from encryption, which simply transforms the message into ciphertext without concealing its existence inside another object. Data masking alters data values to protect privacy, not to conceal messages within a file. Digital forensics, meanwhile, is about uncovering and analyzing digital evidence, not hiding information. Steganography is the technique that matches the idea of covertly embedding data within ordinary media.