Automated Detection of Steganographic Content

Colorado Engineering, Inc., a small woman owned business, and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs are teaming to extend a steganogrpahic architecture for an extensible, distributed application that can be utilized to detect steganographic content in media files, alert the user, and either mitigate (destroy) the content if possible or quarantine the files as appropriate. The initial architecture was prototyped and feasibility demonstrated as a Phase I STTR effort. The distinguishing characteristics of the architecture are the distribution of the steganographic detection tasks using a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to facilitate inclusion of new and improved steganalysis algorithms, and the flexibility of the architecture for use in non-steganalysis domains. This proposal will extend the architecture to include additional capabilities, re-factor prototype architecture components to meet current industry best practices, develop robust user interfaces to make the steganogrpahic system commercially viable, and demonstrate the use of the architecture in a non-steganalysis domain. Proposed Phase I objectives included: user subscription process development, high-level and detailed design of architecture components, prototype application development, feasibility analysis, and Phase II plan development. The proposed architecture will support effective distributed steganalysis activities using easily-extended steganalysis algorithms.