# Steganography

The practice of hiding secret data within an ordinary file, such as an image, so its presence isn't obvious.

**Steganography[↗](/steganography)** is the practice of concealing secret data within an ordinary-looking file, such as an image, audio clip, or document, so that the hidden information's very existence isn't obvious to anyone who isn't looking for it. This differs from encryption[↗](/encryption), which scrambles data but doesn't hide that something is encrypted.

Attackers sometimes use steganography to smuggle stolen data out of a network or hide malicious code inside seemingly harmless files, since it can slip past security tools that aren't specifically looking for it.