WEBVTT - How Does Steganography Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bogobaum here. Stagonography is the art or

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<v Speaker 1>science of not only creating a secret message, but also

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<v Speaker 1>hiding the message itself. The word stagonography, which is based

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<v Speaker 1>on Greek and earlier roots for concealed and writing, was

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<v Speaker 1>itself hidden in a way for about a hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>fifty years. The word went into disuse in the early

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen hundreds in favor of the word cryptography, and it

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<v Speaker 1>only came back in the nineteen eighties as a way

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<v Speaker 1>of distinguishing new digital types of cryptography. For the article,

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<v Speaker 1>this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke by

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<v Speaker 1>email with Jessica Friederick, a system scientist at Binghamton University

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<v Speaker 1>in New York and an expert on stagonography's place in

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<v Speaker 1>digital media. She said, the power of technography is that

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<v Speaker 1>the very act of secret communication is not apparent. Cryptography

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<v Speaker 1>involves taking a piece of information and then trying to

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<v Speaker 1>render it unintelligible to anyone beside the intended recipients, which

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<v Speaker 1>is all well and good. Digital signatures rely on cryptography,

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<v Speaker 1>as do mobile phones and automatic teller machines. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>t N s Yet, as computer scientist Simon R. Wiseman

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<v Speaker 1>noted in a paper, this sort of communication quote can

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<v Speaker 1>be seen and it is obvious that some message is

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<v Speaker 1>being passed, even though the message cannot be read. With stagonography, though,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a whole new ball game, and it can work

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<v Speaker 1>in a bunch of different ways. But one is called

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<v Speaker 1>cover modification, in which Friderick explained quote an existing image

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<v Speaker 1>is modified to convey a desired message. For example, with

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<v Speaker 1>the right now, how you could embed Shakespeare quotes inside

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<v Speaker 1>an ordinary looking digital photo of a cat. One method

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<v Speaker 1>of doing so would involve modifying some of the pixels

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<v Speaker 1>in a way that's far too subtle for the naked

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<v Speaker 1>eye to detect. A Google Chrome browser extension, unveiled in

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<v Speaker 1>called Secret Book, capitalized on this concept. It allowed Facebook

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<v Speaker 1>users to make incredibly slight alterations to JPEG images hosted

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<v Speaker 1>on the social media platform. Through that process, participants could

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<v Speaker 1>hide messages of a hundred and forty characters are fewer

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<v Speaker 1>right inside the pictures, unbeknownst to just about anyone who

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<v Speaker 1>didn't have the password needed to reveal them. You might

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<v Speaker 1>also conceal messages in digital audio files. People who use

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<v Speaker 1>audio stagonography have many tricks at their disposal, from hiding

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<v Speaker 1>echoes to making use of sound frequencies that lie above

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<v Speaker 1>the normal human range of hearing. In the wrong hands,

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<v Speaker 1>stagonography can be a destructive tool. Cyber attackers have been

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<v Speaker 1>known to spread harmful malware by using steganographic techniques. I

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<v Speaker 1>think digital trojan horses. Government agencies and private companies also

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<v Speaker 1>need to be on guard against hackers who infiltrate their

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<v Speaker 1>websites and then leave dangerous data behind inside steganographic files.

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<v Speaker 1>A stegan analysis is the practice of trying to detect

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<v Speaker 1>and expose stagonography. Sometimes suspicious looking files are inspected by

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<v Speaker 1>algorithms designed especially for this purpose. Frederick said, modern stagonography

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<v Speaker 1>uses powerful source coding to minimize the impact of the

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<v Speaker 1>embedding changes. Modern stag analysis is usually based on machine learning.

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<v Speaker 1>For those keeping score at home, machine learning is what

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<v Speaker 1>happens when computers and algorithms are given huge sets of

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<v Speaker 1>data to learn from and then make predictions accordingly. It's

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<v Speaker 1>an exciting field in the world of artificial intelligence, and

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<v Speaker 1>stegnography has trickled into our popular culture. In The Pew

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<v Speaker 1>Research Center reported that quote fifty percent of American teen

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<v Speaker 1>social media users say they share inside jokes or cloak

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<v Speaker 1>their messages in some way as a way of creating

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<v Speaker 1>a different sort of privacy. Many teen social media users

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<v Speaker 1>will obscure some of their updates and posts, sharing coded

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<v Speaker 1>messages that only certain friends will understand. Scholars have called

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<v Speaker 1>this social steganography. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>Steganography the Art of Hiding Messages in plain sight on

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com, written by Mark Vancini. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler.

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