Stegogis: A new steganography method using the geospatial domain

Abstract

Geographic data are used on a variety of computing devices for many different applications including navigation, tracking, location planning, and marketing. The prevalence of geographic data makes it possible to envision new useful applications. In this paper, we propose using geographic data as a medium for secret communication, or steganography. We develop a method called StegoGIS for hiding messages in geographic coordinates in the well-known binary of fast-moving objects and transmitting them secretly. We show that discovering this secret communication is practically impossible for third parties. We also show that a large amount of secret data can be transmitted this way, and that the receiver can easily extract the hidden message. We argue that StegoGIS offers a novel and practical secret communication method with minimal overhead.