Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.08.02
What is steganography, and how does it differ from encryption?
Steganography hides the existence of a message; encryption hides its content but the message is still visible.
* Encryption hides the content; steganography hides that a message exists at all. *
| Property | Steganography | Encryption |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Hide that a message exists | Hide what the message says |
| Visibility | The message carrier looks innocent | Ciphertext is visible (and obviously encrypted) |
| Example | Hiding text inside an image file | AES-encrypting a file |
Classic example: Two seemingly identical photos of a woman in a hat — one contains the first 10 chapters of Nabokov's Lolita hidden in the image data, completely invisible to the human eye.
Modern steganographic techniques:
- LSB (Least Significant Bit) — modifying the least significant bits of image pixels
- Audio steganography — hiding data in audio frequencies
- Network steganography — hiding data in protocol headers/timing
Important: Steganography and encryption are complementary, not competing. The strongest approach is to encrypt first, then hide the ciphertext steganographically.
Go deeper:
Steganography - hiding the existence of a message (e.g. LSB embedding), contrasted with cryptography.