Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad B.Tech III CRYPTOGRAPHY AND NETWORK SECURITY Previous Question Paper (July - 2023 - R16)

Security is essential in information systems to protect data from unauthorized access, modification, or destruction. It ensures the CIA triad: Confidentiality, which prevents unauthorized disclosure of information; Integrity, which ensures data remains accurate and unaltered; and Availability, which guarantees that authorized users have reliable access to information and resources when needed. As networks expand, security is required to mitigate risks from cyber threats, maintain user privacy, and uphold the legal and ethical standards of digital communication.

Steganography is the practice of concealing secret information within a non-secret carrier medium, such as an image, audio file, or text, in such a way that the very existence of the message is hidden from observers. Unlike cryptography, which renders a message unintelligible to unauthorized parties, steganography focuses on security through obscurity by ensuring the communication remains undetected.

Key components include the cover object (the carrier), the secret message, and the stego-object (the resulting file containing the hidden data). Common techniques involve modifying the least significant bits (LSB) of digital media files to embed data without causing perceptible changes to the original content.