As commercially available computational resources grow in power, so does their ability to "break" encryption schemes. To provide new ways to ensure security of internet communications, researchers are developing alternative techniques.
"Steganography is the art and science of communicating in a way which hides the existence of the communication. In contrast to cryptography, where the "enemy" is allowed to detect, intercept and modify messages without being able to violate certain security premises guaranteed by a cryptosystem, the goal of steganography is to hide messages inside other "harmless" messages in a way that does not allow any "enemy" to even detect that there is a second secret message present." [Markus Kuhn 1995-07-03].
"The word steganography literally means covered writing as derived from Greek. It includes a vast array of methods of secret communications that conceal the very existence of the message. Among these methods are invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement (other than the cryptographic methods of permutation and substitution), digital signatures, covert channels and spread-spectrum communications." [©1995-2000 Neil F. Johnson]
For information about Internet Steganography research being conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, contact the Networking Research Group of Computer Science and Mathematics Division.