Customer Reviews

Hiding in Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert Communication

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The information is quite good, though not very in depth. The examples are good, as they explain, "See, this really *can* be used in 'real life'." There is also some programming information, so for some parts (nothing critical, just program design), a knowledge of C is useful. Personally, this is my first book on steganography, so the technicality of the information was at a good level (informative, but not buried in jargon or advanced math). I have no programming background, but skipping the program designs was not a detriment in any way.

However... I think the editor should be bludgeoned once or twice with something heavy. I have written some documentation, and the editor did things that I know never to do. First, there are a few grammatical errors, which cause serious problems if you are not paying attention. (In one example, it is said the user (I don't have the book in front of me) "attaches her private PGP key, encrypts it with [the other's] public PGP key, and sends the email". This is after saying many times "NEVER EVER SHARE YOUR PRIVATE PGP KEY!!!". Then, the example goes on to say the recipient "uses the public PGP key, which is attached...". (The first sentence should have read "public PGP key"). In addition to one or two other situations like this, there is also an issue with the inline images. They all appear only at the top and bottom of the page, while the author clearly intends for some to be in paragraphs. The author says things like "as seen in this image:", but the sentence continues, and "this image", the number of which is not given, is elsewhere on the page. Further, many images have the eight resize anchor points and thick border visible from screen shots; these should have been Photoshop'ed out (it's not that hard, I've done it with Paintbrush).

If you are looking for advanced work, skip this. For a basic work, I would give it five stars, but the editors errors are so bad....

This book does an outstanding job of combining both technical details and background to create a very interesting read. It's not dry like most of the other books on this subject, and I truly enjoyed reading it. The author does a great job incorporating analogies and explainations to demonstrate "practical" applications. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is either new to the subject, or would like a refresher to expand their knowledge of the subject (like myself).

Not knowing much other than the definition of steganography before opening this book I found it very easy to read and very informative.

Eric Cole has a background in working with hidden data and his experience is translated into a book that even users new to the concepts of covert communication can understand. The fictionalized stories of actual events help the reader to understand how these tools are used every day by both the good guys and the bad guys.

The book covers a basic history and background of cryptography and digital watermarking as well as steganography and then gets into more detail about the techniques and concepts of "stego". It does provide source code, but may not be "meaty" enough for steganography experts.

(...)

I thought that this book was excellent. Normally I highlight specific parts of a book, but this book had so much good information I found my self needing to highlight nearly everything that I read. This book unlike most technical books that i have read in the past makes me want to continue reading, because right away you learn something new. I happen to think that stegonography and cryptography are two extremely interesting subjects. I could tell that the author was also very passionate about the subjects, wich made me even more interested in what i was reading. I reccommend this book to anyone interested in stego and cryptography.

Call me silly for expecting more from this. This book rollercoasters from the wildly vague overview to the distractingly specific detail and back again. The author shows promise in writing style but the editing needs some work. Typos and silly mistakes like the majority of the second half of the book's images appear taken from a Word document (or similar) while selected (border, drag handles overlayed) and LOTS of white space.

And how useful is 80 pages of printed source code? The CD is included, just save the trees and my shelf space please.

The author is a seemingly public figure (TV show appearances, etc) so I guess you can only expect so much.

If you're looking for meat on the topic, don't bother. If you want a basic overview in a weekend read, go for it.

I used to alternate between reading a computer book and then another book for pleasure. These days I find myself reading computer books almost exclusively with most of them having to do with security. This book remindinded me of the days when I used to just read for pleasure.

Hiding in Plain Sight is very well written and fun to read. It's one of those books you look forward to reading every time you pick it up. It's written in such a way that the information in the books stays with you long after you read it. It provides a good introduction to cryptography and steganography. The book also comes with a CD with some sample stego tools on it. You can have a lot of fun playing with these.

The book is not an all encompasing steganography book. It does have about the right amount of technical information for most security professionals. If you are a security professional and are looking for something fun to read that will enhance your understanding of steganography and cryptography you will not be disappointed with this book.

I briefly owned this book, but had to return it after a day and a half due to the preponderence of incorrect information I found. Although this book is meant to be an overview of Stegonography without getting too deep into the technical aspects, I seriously question the author's expertise in this area of study. The author was seriously in error when detailing some BASIC cryptography concepts. If this guy was actually developing security tools for real world use, I would never be able to trust that my systems were secure.

This book is excellent! It gives the reader the option of beginning from scratch or quickly referencing needed information. The author gives you all of the information you could need to have a firm grasp on stego and allows you to develop your own ideas from there. It's definitely a book for active minds!

I'm glad to see there is finally a good book covering Stego!

I'm familiar with crypto and steg and was hoping that this book would give some deeper insights into techniques for both stego algorithms and steganalysis. Unfortunately, it pretty much stays at the 101 level in all aspects. Many of the steg techniques that it presents source code for are trivial at best and it pretty much stays away from discussing or solving any of the really hard problems. Its a shame, too, because I get the feeling that the author knows enough to write about the more advanced topics, but just chose not to for whatever reason.

On the plus side, the example scenarios for using steg are interesting and fairly informative.

So if you know nothing about steg or crypto this book might be a good place to start, but if you already know what they are you probably won't learn much here.

Henry Ford was once asked how he can manage an organization the size of The Ford Motor Company? He replied that he didn't have all the answers to all the questions but he did know who to call for the answers he required. As a key executive, I make decisions that require answers that are reliable and rich with content. Mr Cole has provided the answers I was looking for in his book: "Hiding in Plain Sight". I read the entire work in one sitting because its value to me grew with each page.

Thank You sir,

I look forward to your next publication.