Comparative Study on different Steganographic Techniques

The high speed digital world of today has eased the process of data transmission. Today, large amount of data can be transferred in small amount of time which has raised a big question on the secrecy of data, since it can easily be accessed by any third party. Digital Steganography is the science that involves communicating secret data in an appropriate multimedia carrier such that the existence of communication is hidden.

The art of information hiding has gained much importance in past few years because after having solved the issue of speed and amount of data to be transferred, the other big concern is the security of that data as the information is being transmitted via common channels of communication. Steganography is a technology where data compression, cryptography and information theory like methods are brought together to provide the required amount of secrecy to transfer data.

Classification of steganography techniques into multiple categories is based on the cover modification applied in the embedding process and the type of cover used for secret communication. This is totally a review paper, in which we provide the comparison of available steganography methods of hiding text in an image file, audio file, text file or a video file using some basic techniques namely Substitution System, Transform Domain, Spread Spectrum technique, Statistical Method, Distortions Technique and Cover Generating Methods which are categorised accordingly in their respective domains. These types of files act as a cover file for sending the secret message in embedded form.