On Importance of Steganographic Cost For Network Steganography

Abstract: Network steganography encompasses the information hiding techniques that can be applied in communication network environments and that utilize hidden data carriers for this purpose. In this paper we introduce a characteristic called steganographic cost which is an indicator for the degradation or distortion of the carrier caused by the application of the steganographic method. Based on exemplary cases for single- and multi-method steganographic cost analyses we observe that it can be an important characteristic that allows to express hidden data carrier degradation - similarly as MSE (Mean-Square Error) or PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) are utilized for digital media steganography. Steganographic cost can moreover be helpful to analyse the relationships between two or more steganographic methods applied to the same hidden data carrier.