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Sci Tech
Hiding data in a system: Knowing the limits
A THEORY that sets the limits for the amount of data that can be hidden in a system and then provides guidelines for how to store data and decode it has been devised.
The theory is a fundamental and broad-reaching advance in information and communication systems that eventually will be implemented in commerce and numerous homeland security applications — from detecting forgery to intercepting and interpreting messages sent between terrorists.
Using elements of game, communication and optimisation theories, Jody O'Sullivan, professor of electrical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and his former graduate student, Pierre Moulin, now at the University of Illinois, have determined the fundamental limits on the amount of information that can be reliably hidden in a broad class of data or information-hiding problems, whether they are in visual, audio or print media.
`This is the fundamental theorem of data hiding,' O'Sullivan said. One hundred years from now, if someone's trying to embed information in something else, they'll never be able to hide more than is determined by our theory.
This is a constant. You basically plug in the parameters of the problem you are working and the theory predicts the limits.
Data, or information hiding is an emerging area that encompasses such applications as copyright protection for digital media, watermarking, fingerprinting, steganography and data embedding.
Watermarking is a means of authenticating intellectual property — such as a photographer's picture, or a Disney movie, by making imperceptible digital notations in the media identifying the owner. Steganography is the embedding of hidden messages in other messages.
"The limit to how much data can be hidden in a system is the key because it's important to know that you can't hide any more and if you are attacking (trying to disable the message) you can't block any more than this." O'Sullivan said.
"It's also important because knowing this theory you can derive what are the properties of the optimal strategy to hide information, and what are the properties of the optimal attack."
O'Sullivan published his paper in the IEEE Transactions On Information Theory. The primary motivation for the technical direction of projects is to provide the basis for new industries and to assist the government and existing corporations through collaboration.
The goal is technology development to defend against an array of threats, including: cybersecurity, critical infrastructures, environmental catastrophes and natural disasters, among other possibilities.
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