See that picture to the left?

It looks like a normal picture, correct?

And it contains my full name and birthday, right?

If you answered yes to both questions, you're right. The picture does look like a normal picture and it also contains my birthday (June 1st 1982) as well as my full name (Zachary John Wyatt). The text is hidden within the color palette that accompanies the picture and is only detectable with special software. With other programs, users can hide data within audio, image, movie, and other files.

This is the new, digital, modern steganography.

You might be wondering why anyone would need to hide data these days. After all, new forms of digital cryptography allow people to communicate with systems that the word 'improbable' most accurately describes a hacker's chances of breaking it. So, while people have access to super secure means of communication, why would anyone want to use steganography to hide messages that no one would be able to decrypt?

The most common use of stegagraphic tools today is to send private messages through email accounts at work where they are not allowed. Many email 'black chambers' (rooms where personal mail is read and banned if necessary) in the corporate world will block encrypted messages as well as personal messages to discourage it's use. To get mail past the chamber, employees can use digital steganographia tools to hide personal messages in innocuous looking data attached to emails.