How Clever I want to be with Steganography- a Podcast

How do you hide a message in plain sight? Steganography. It is an idea I have appreciated for a long time but I still have no idea why I would use it. Steganography is the art or science of hiding the existence of a message. A steganographic message typically looks like something simple like an innocuous photo or a newspaper article. The secret message is hidden in the photo or newspaper article. The idea being if those spying on you don't know there is a message, it is much harder to crack.

Clever techniques include using the first word of a each paragraph in a longer document to compose the message. Of course this is very simple trick.

I wish I better understood the math of the more complex techniques. Fortunately there is software available to help you with these techniques. Pict Encrypt for OS X allows you to hide some text in an image file.

Want to do it on Windows? Check out securekit.com.

To my earlier point, I think steganography and cryptology are very cool. I just wish I had a reason to use them.

Be sure, if you want to know more, to read the interesting thread on Slashdot.org about steganography & steganalysis.

With all the fear of terrorism I am sure steganography & steganalysis (the detection of steganographic messages) will be increasingly important fields of study.

Steganography and Podcasting? I am sure there is a way to hide a message in a podcast. Anyone interested in figuring out how?