Steganography
Steganography is the practice of concealing information within other non-secret data, such as hiding a message within an image, audio file, or video. Unlike cryptography, which focuses on making data unreadable, steganography aims to make the existence of the data undetectable. It is commonly used in digital security, watermarking, and covert communication to protect sensitive information from unauthorized detection.
Developers should learn steganography when working on applications requiring data privacy, digital rights management, or secure communication channels where hiding the very presence of information is critical. Specific use cases include embedding copyright watermarks in media files, concealing messages in images for secure transmission, and implementing anti-tampering mechanisms in software. It is particularly valuable in cybersecurity, forensics, and multimedia applications to enhance security without obvious encryption.