Data hiding via phase manipulation of audio signals

Data hiding in media, including images, video, and audio, and in data files is currently of great interest both commercially, mainly for the protection of copyrighted digital media, and to the government and law enforcement in the context of information system security and covert communications. We present a technique for inserting and recovering "hidden" data in audio files. The phase of chosen components of the host audio signal is manipulated in a way that may be detected by a receiver with the proper "key". Without the key, the hidden data is undetectable, both aurally and via blind digital signal processing attacks. The method described is both aurally transparent and robust and can be applied to both analog and digital audio signals, the latter including uncompressed as well as compressed audio file formats such as MP3.