Why Johnny Can't Use Stego: a Human-oriented Perspective on the Application of Steganography

TL;DR

This paper introduces a human-centered phase model that explains the decision-making process and conditions under which individuals choose to use steganography, filling a gap in existing research.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive phase model from an individual's perspective, detailing the decision process and conditions for applying steganography.

Findings

The model explains pre-conditions for steganography use.

It clarifies decision-making stages for individuals.

The model can be used for education and research.

Abstract

Steganography is the discipline that deals with concealing the existence of secret communications. Existing research already provided several fundamentals for defining steganography and presented a multitude of hiding methods and countermeasures for this research discipline. We identified that no work exists that discusses the process of applying steganography from an individual's perspective. This paper presents a phase model that explains pre-conditions of applying steganography as well as the decision-making process and the final termination of a steganographic communication. The model can be used to explain whether an individual can use steganography and to explain whether and why an individual desires to use steganography. Moreover, the model can be used in research publications to indicate the addressed model's phase of scientific contributions. Furthermore, our model can be used to teach the process of steganography-application to students.