Detecting disclosed content sources using dynamic steganography
Systems for forensic steganography. A server is interfaced with storage facilities that store an object accessible by two or more users, each of which users are associated with respective profiles comprising one or more user-specific attributes. A method detects a user request to view the object. User-specific attributes are encoded into a steganographic message, which is formatted for saving into one or more locations in the object, thus generating a protected object. The protected object is delivered to the requesting user. Encoding, application and formatting techniques are configured to make the steganographic message undetectable by human viewing of the protected object. A web crawler or other policing technique can detect misappropriation in the form of unauthorized dissemination by detecting the presence of the encoded steganographic message embedded in the protected object. Decoding the steganographic message reveals the user-specific attributes so as to identify the user who disseminated the protected object.
1. A method comprising:
identifying a rendered view of an object comprising an image, the image having multiple sites where one or more steganographic messages have been placed, wherein the one or more steganographic messages correspond to one or more attributes of a source that have been encoded into the image by modifying pixel data in the image, wherein a particular steganographic message comprises a matrix of squares where a square of the matrix of squares represents a binary value used to modify the pixel data at a given pixel location;
uploading the rendered view of the object to a server to detect a steganographic message by retrieving object attributes from a security database and using the object attributes to implement at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the multiple sites having placement of the one or more steganographic messages within a partition of the object;
decoding the steganographic message from at least one of the multiple sites that was detected using the at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the source; and
extracting user information according to steganographic settings associated with the object.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
implementing a content tracking user interface to establish content tracking rules and steganographic settings.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the content tracking user interface further comprises a content tracking setup window and a source detection window, wherein the content tracking setup window presents various input entry elements to associate various tracking rules with a given storage or sharing policy, wherein the source detection window corresponds to invoking an analysis of a recovered object to determine a source.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steganographic message is a two-dimensional barcode.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one steganographic message site is determined based at least in part on a respective content type.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein an object attribute corresponds to at least one of an encoding method, content-based rules, or protected object original size.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the object attribute comprises size or sites of a two-dimensional barcode used to apply the steganographic messages.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the object attribute indicates that the object is partitioned according to a certain content type.
9. A computer program product, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a set of acts, the set of acts comprising:
identifying a rendered view of an object comprising an image, the image having multiple sites where one or more steganographic messages have been placed, wherein the one or more steganographic messages correspond to one or more attributes of a source that have been encoded into the image by modifying pixel data in the image, wherein a particular steganographic message comprises a matrix of squares where a square of the matrix of squares represents a binary value used to modify the pixel data at a given pixel location;
uploading the rendered view of the object to a server to detect a steganographic message by retrieving object attributes from a security database and using the object attributes to implement at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the multiple sites having placement of the one or more steganographic messages within a partition of the object;
decoding the steganographic message from at least one of the multiple sites that was detected using the at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the source; and
extracting user information according to steganographic settings associated with the object.
10. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising:
implementing a content tracking user interface to establish content tracking rules and steganographic settings.
11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the content tracking user interface further comprises a content tracking setup window and a source detection window, wherein the content tracking setup window presents various input entry elements to associate various tracking rules with a given storage or sharing policy, wherein the source detection window corresponds to invoking an analysis of a recovered object to determine a source.
12. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the steganographic message is a two-dimensional barcode.
13. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein one or more steganographic message site is determined based at least in part on a respective content type.
14. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein an object attribute corresponds to at least one of an encoding method, content-based rules, or protected object original size.
15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the object attribute comprises size or sites of a two-dimensional barcode used to apply the steganographic messages.
16. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the object attribute indicates that the object is partitioned according to a certain content type.
17. A system comprising:
a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is interfaced with one or more storage facilities that store one or more objects accessible by two or more users; and
a processing element that performs:
identifying a rendered view of an object comprising an image, the image having multiple sites where one or more steganographic messages have been placed, wherein the one or more steganographic messages correspond to one or more attributes of a source that have been encoded into the image by modifying pixel data in the image, wherein a particular steganographic message comprises a matrix of squares where a square of the matrix of squares represents a binary value used to modify the pixel data at a given pixel location;
uploading the rendered view of the object to a server to detect a steganographic message by retrieving object attributes from a security database and using the object attributes to implement at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the multiple sites having placement of the one or more steganographic messages within a partition of the object;
decoding the steganographic message from at least one of the multiple sites that was detected using the at least one of scaling the object or partitioning the object to identify the source; and
extracting user information according to steganographic settings associated with the object.
18. The system of claim 17 , further comprising the processing element performing implementing a content tracking user interface to establish content tracking rules and steganographic settings.
19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the steganographic messages is a two-dimensional barcode.
20. The system of claim 17 , wherein at least one steganographic message site is determined based at least in part on a respective content type.