Data Security in Communications: A Study of Cryptography and Steganography Techniques

Long distance communication using electronic media is prone to unwanted interception just rather more than the communication over traditional channels was. While the traditional communication systems were insecure, it was rather more difficult to intercept communication without the communicating parties realizing that someone has seen the written message, due to either the tampering of the seal proof cover, or harm to the courier carrier person. But digital messages move over the Internet or the telephonic communication channels using store and forward techniques. Hence the message can be copied at any intermediate node without anyone getting any the wiser. The message, once inserted into the shared channel, is open to all, and completely insecure. Hence it is necessary to ensure that it won’t be understood by unwanted persons on the way. Cryptography and steganography approaches try to achieve this. Security of the messages in transit includes confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation. In this paper, we study various algorithms developed towards ensuring security of communications.