Comprehensive linguistic steganography survey

an article by Abdelrahman Desoky published in International Journal of Information and Computer Security Volume 4 Number 2 (2010)

Abstract
Contemporary steganography approaches suffer from many serious deficiencies; generally, they attempt to hide data as detectable and suspicious noise in a cover that is assumed to look innocent. In addition, steganography approaches found in literature have focused on how to conceal a message and not on how to camouflage its transmittal. This paper presents a comprehensive survey that focuses mainly on, but not limited to, computational linguistics aspects of steganography and it is organised as follows:

• Section 1 concisely details the fundamental concepts related to steganography, summarises the current state of the research, and highlights the technical concerns. Then, it briefly describes the modern steganography, namely noiseless steganography (Nostega).
• Section 2 discusses the contemporary steganography and Nostega paradigm (the modern steganography).
• Section 3 demonstrates Nostega-based methodologies.
• Section 4 presents a brief overview of steganalysis.
• Section 5 concludes the survey and highlights directions for future research.

Hazel’s comment:
There are several articles about steganography in the “stuff” that I’ve been reading recently. And, yes, I did feel a bit uneducated that I had to use Google define: to find out what on earth the fuss is all about. This is the definition I thought best fitted what this article is talking about:

“Steganography is the technique whereby a message, possibly encrypted, is concealed within another medium. In the world of computing, this means that a seemingly innocuous graphic or sound file (say) can conceal a message which could be used to disguise corporate espionage. (cityofseattle.net/informationsecurity/glossary)”

So, in the computer age, steganography, which was the art of hiding your real message inside a seemingly innocuous one, is now something to be feared or, at the very least, guarded against!

On a more prosaic front I’ve seen messages on Facebook from some of my teenage friends which appear to be innocent – but they carry hidden messages to those “in the know”. Do they know they are using steganography?

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