1. Why should I use a tool like wbStego?
When you are transmitting data, especially online, the privacy
of this data can never be guaranted. To secure the privacy of
this data, cryptography is used. But it has one big advantage:
Everyone can see the fact that there is encrypted - and consequently
private, interesting and important - data. Steganography
hides this fact and does not seduce to try breaking the encryption.
2. What about hiding something in a text?
Hiding any data in a text is no problem with wbStego
- as long as there isn't too much data to hide. There is not
too much space to use in a text file, so the text has to be
long or you can only hide small files. See also question
9.
3. Can I hide something directly in the text
of an e-mail I send?
Currently there is not method that works well in all e-mail
applications with hiding something directly in e-mail text.
But you can send a text file that contains other data as e-mail
attachment.
4. I would like to add a copyright information
to my photos. Can I do this with wbStego?
Of course. wbStego offers
a copyright
information manager that allows you to do this in a very
convenient way. In older versions you have to create a text
file that contains all necessary information and hide it in
the carrier
file. The use of wbStego
as a tool for adding copyright information is also discussed
in a review at epinions.com.
5. I am currently using a cryptography tool
(e.g. PGP or something similar). Should I use wbStego
instead?
Not instead - but also. Steganography does not replace cryptography
- it gives additional protection. The output of a good cryptography
software seems to be a random sequence. If you hide this data
it is nearly impossible to determine between the nearly random
sequence of some bits in a bitmap image and the output of the
cryptography file.
6. How much data can I hide in a file?
That depends very much on the type of the file. You'll find
information about it in the program's help or in the wbStego
carrier
file information.
7. What about hiding data in grayscale
bitmaps?
It works the same way than hiding data in colour images.
But you should ba aware of the fact that grayscale images
use less data per pixel and that's why you can hide less data
in them. See also question 9.
8. Will wbStego
support hiding data in JPEG files or GIF files in future?
NO, but if you are a Delphi/Kylix programmer, you can download
the source distribution and add this functionality.
9. Can I hide an image in another image?
Of course you can. Its just a question of size: The carrier
image has to be much larger than the image you want to hide
(see question 6).
10. What happens if I hide something
in the HTML code of my website?
The HTML pages will not change for the viewer. Your hidden
information is embedded in the page but it will not influence
rendering the page or any other information, e.g. meta information
used by search engines. The hidden message will not be visible
when viewing the source of the HTML page.
11. When I hide something in a text and
view the output file with a text editor the file appears to
be blank.
You are using a "non-standard" ASCII viewer. This
problem has been reported with using the editor "EdiPad".
It does not appear when using the compatible text encoding method.
12. I want to hide data in 4 or 8 bit
bitmaps. When wbStego checks
the available space it seems to hang.
Usually the program does not hang, but in can in some cases
take very long until the amount of available space is determined
for this kind of carrier files.
13. What can I do with the source distribution?
Can I redistribute it, use it in own programs?
The source distribution is published under the GNU
General Public License (GPL). You may redistribute the
source distribution if you leave it unchanged. You may use
the code or part of it in your programs, as long as you publish
these programs under GPL as well.
14. I have fixed a bug in the wbStego
code or added a new feature - will it become a part of the
next wbStego distribution?
If you think that this feature may be useful for other users,
feel free to send me the patch and I will include it in the
next distribution or publish it as a path on this website.
15. I have downloaded the source distribution.
Where can I find documentation?
There is a very short developer documentation, which is part
of the distribution and available online here.
It is very brief, and many things are missing. If necessary,
send me an e-mail
with your question, I will answer as time permits.
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