Microsoft Excel File: A Steganographic Carrier File

Abstract

Data hiding is emerging as an important area of research with the advent of digital technologies. Watermarking, fingerprinting and steganography are important applications of data hiding techniques. Besides the classical use of data hiding in ownership protection, authentication and copy/access control, it serves as a general tool to convey side information. New files are a good choice for steganographic carriers. In this paper, the authors use Microsoft Excel as a cover file. A methodology has been developed that consists of three techniques for embedding the valuable data with three layers of security and high robustness. The resultant stego Excel file can be transmitted anywhere using any channel. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed methodology.