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I'm a 12th grade student interested in a science project in cryptography and steganography for my school's science fair. I chose this path of computer science partly because my coding skills are weak (even though I've taken computer classes for 3 years) and partly because I wanted a more math-oriented field. After doing my research, I found that for my science project, I wanted to test how to implement both cryptography and steganography techniques to maximize data security in a message. My plan to execute this is skewered by the fact that my topic is very advanced and usually requires years of complex math. So far, this has been my plan:

Q: which cryptographic algorithm and which steganography technique put together will result in the most efficient, secure data?

I will be testing 3 cryptographic algorithms: DES, AES, and RSA I will be testing 3 steganography techniques: Adding bits to a file, and Least Significant Bit (LSB), and RGB color encryption

The purpose is to see which two combination of methods offer the most security, and at the moment there are 3x3=9 combinations of tactics I can test to see which is strongest.

So far example, using the crypto library in Java, I would be able to implement one of the cryptographic algorithms into my code for encryption. Then, using a steganography software tool, I would then hide the file using one of the steganography techniques. I was thinking the security of the combined techniques could be measured by the encryption time (the higher it is, the less efficient and secure), but my main concerns are:

  1. Is this a practical project? Can this be executed like a true science fair project and
  2. In what way other than encryption time should I measure the 'effectiveness' of the two techniques?

I have to start collecting data very soon, and I feel as though I'm underestimating how complex this experiment is. But I would really like feedback!

Ingrid
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which cryptographic algorithm and which steganography technique put together will result in the most efficient, secure data?

AES and DES are already a combination of separate algorithms involving multiple steps each. They are already "put together".

Steganography won't add additional security because of Kerckhoffs’ principles.

In what way other than encryption time should I measure the 'effectiveness' of the two techniques?

Computation time is not a good indicator of security. If AES and DES are used together, the security will be equal to AES' security by itself. This is because DES' seed can be guessed faster than brute force - it has been broken.

Is this a practical project? Can this be executed like a true science fair project

It is not a practical project because neither AES nor DES can be broken using any machine you own, therefore output (no matter how much you massage or analyse it) will always appear as random bits. This means there will be no way to measure the security provided by combining methods.

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Jacob Levinson
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