Forensic Investigation and Legal Issues: Hiding Information through Steganography

Abstract: This paper presents information hiding, also known as data embedding, for transmitting secret information through a network. Data security is the prime aspect of conveying information through communication channels. The data hiding and information procedure can be done using several methods, i.e., cryptography, steganography, and digital watermarking. Most people need clarification about cryptography and steganography because both methods are used for hiding information, but there is a minor difference between them. In cryptography, the secret message is hidden, known as “Secret Writing”; in steganography, secret communication is known as “covered Writing”. This paper mainly focuses on steganography for data and information hiding. Steganography is used primarily on terrorism, where the terrorists secretly transmit their data to others globally. The existence of the steganography evaluation model is dominant for stronger development of preferable techniques and the way to cover the extant ones. Despite the ordinary parameters, they are generally acknowledged for the comprehensive assessment of the steganography technique, which is deficient. Nowadays there are many forensic investigations are ongoing on terrorist attacks, which are done through secret transmission of data or information. Many challenges are faced by steganography forensics during the analysis of embedded data. This paper urges digital forensics to be more forward than criminals who use data-hiding techniques that can take advantage of and obscure their criminal activities. This paper concludes the need to develop more robust tools and steganalysis techniques.