The practice of hiding data within other data is known as?

• A. Steganography
• B. Tokenization
• C. PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
• D. SSL/TLS

Answer: (A)

Steganography is the practice of hiding data inside other data so that the hidden message remains undetectable to casual observation. The goal is to conceal the existence of the information by embedding it into a carrier file such as an image, audio, video, or text, in a way that looks normal on the outside. For example, small changes in the least significant bits of an image can carry a hidden message without noticeably altering the image’s appearance.

This differs from tokenization, which replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens but doesn’t attempt to hide that there is data present. It also differs from PKI, which manages keys and certificates for authentication and encryption, and from SSL/TLS, which protects data in transit. None of those primarily aim to conceal the very presence of the data inside another file; they focus on protecting the data's confidentiality or establishing trust and secure channels.