Title: Audio Steganography via Cloud Services: Integrity Analysis of Hidden File

Issue Number: Vol. 7, No. 1
Year of Publication: March - 2018
Page Numbers: 80-86
Authors: Ashar Neyaz, Cihan Varol
Journal Name: International Journal of Cyber-Security and Digital Forensics (IJCSDF)
- Hong Kong
DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.17781/P002368

Abstract:


Steganography is implemented by manipulating data within a carrier file, such as on audio files. Audio Steganography is one of the techniques used for transmitting hidden information by modifying or altering an audio signal in an imperceptible manner. These hidden files can be transmitted on the internet without being detected or not stored in cloud services to carry out hidden communication or agenda. In this paper, first, background, techniques, and experiments related with audio steganography are covered. Second, different formatted audio files (.au, .ape, .mp3, .wav, and .wma) will be altered to hide a hidden message via using well-known steganography tools. Third and last, this data will be transmitted through cloud and internet via services such as Facebook Messenger, iMesssage, Google Drive, DropBox, and Amazon Drive to analyze whether the files retains the hidden message throughout transmission. After conducting the experiments, it is observed that integrity of hidden data is retained when the cloud service is Google, Amazon, and Dropbox. With using Steg Hide tool, hidden message can be retained when Facebook Messenger is used to transfer the file. None of the steganography tools that were employed maintained the integrity with iMessage either because of incompatible file format or because of not being able to retrieve the hidden data. Overall, since there are differences among the algorithms and input file formats used in the cloud services, standardizing these services will help to not lose the integrity of files when storing/transferring.