NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, September 2002
Purloin Your Data, or...Hide it in plain site
by John Clark, WebMaster
rcmahq@nwark.com
(click to email author)


If you have a memo or a spreadsheet you would like to keep from prying eyes, you could hide it in a picture. Like the letter in Poe's story you could then leave it in any folder where anyone could find it and probably not realize what it is.

The method called Steganography" or secret writing is very old, but with today's technology it is rather simple. A picture is made up of pixels, each pixel has three bytes of data used in controlling the red green blue colors of the display which light up the pixel on the screen. If you change the last bit of each of these bytes you make a minor change in the display colors of the pixel, but neither your monitor or your eyes can spot the change.

Today there is freeware software out on the big wire that will let you do this automagically. They will all run in their own folders and in my case they run from a CDRW disk. {With the programs stored separate from the hidden data there is a bit more security from someone getting into your computer via your connection to the internet.}

Perhaps one of the best is a Windows system: "The Third Eye", located at http://www.webkclub.com/tte/index.html

The Third Eye is a neat system which will tell you if your picture is too small to hold the data. It does require a password which is used to scramble you message before it is place in the photo. You will need the password to retrieve the data.

There is a DOS system called "HideSeek" located at http://online.securityfocus.com/tools/1180/scoreit

HideSeek is real old-time. Old DOS users may be happier with it -- It requires no password, but you can scramble the data using a password if you want to. {Remember most people today can't use DOS so you got another level of security by using it.}

A third one -- "Imagehide" located at http://prem-01.portlandpremium.co.uk/p1- 28/imagehide.htm will allow you to enter data from the keyboard. Could be handy to keep track of your passwords of the other systems.

There are some things to remember when using these systems:

    1. Make sure your picture is a .gif file -- .jpg files often change when you save them.

    2. It would be better if you have a gray scale .gif file. Color systems can show a pattern when displayed that indicate something may be there.

    3. The more cluttered the background the better the picture will hide the data. If you use one with a simple white background you may see black dots that could be a tip off something else may be there.


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