Steganography and Data Hiding in Flash Video (FLV)

Due to increased security threats experienced today, confidential information, such as medical records and banking data, are at risk. Thus, multiple layers of data protection beyond conventional encryption must be considered. The current study presents the design and implementation of a steganographic protocol and a suite of tools that can automatically analyze a flash video (FLV) format and effectively hide information within it for application in a digital records environment. This study proposes several methods of hiding information within an FLV and discusses the corresponding advantages and disadvantages of such methods. The proposed steganographic methods are analyzed qualitatively by using auditory-visual perception tests and quantitatively by using video tags evolution graphs and histograms and RGB averaging analysis. This study assumes a system where sensitive data is embedded inside FLVs and then transmitted to several recipients who hold varying access authorization levels.