Optimal Covert Communication Techniques

Abstract

Due to advancements in hacking and reverse engineering tools, threat against transfer of sensitive data or highly classified information is always at risk of being intercepted by an attacker. Covert communication outwits this malicious breach of privacy act better than cryptography as it camouflages secret information inside another innocent looking information, while cryptography shows scrambled information that might arouse attention of an attacker. However, the challenges in Steganography are the modification of carrier that causes some abnormalities, which are detectable and often the methods are not optimized. This paper presents an approach in Covert communication Chanel, which utilizes mathematical concept of combination to optimize time of transmission using sets of multiple transmitters, and receivers addresses where each abstractly represents a set of bits or characters combination without modifying the address. To minimize the number of physical address for use, a combination and permutation concept of virtual address generation from physical address is introduce. The paper in addition presents some technique like relationship and their application in both re-enforcing resistivity against Steganalysis and generating combinations. Furthermore, a concept of dynamical clockwise and anti-clockwise rotation of combination over addresses after every transmission is introduced to improve on resistivity against Steganalysis. A simple test was performed for demonstrating relay address, combination and permutation concepts. Based on test results and analysis, the method is effective as expected and it is quite easy to use as it can be implemented in different platforms without much difficulties.

Keywords

• Steganography
• Cryptography
• Algorithm
• Combination
• Permutation

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