An overview of steganography techniques applied to the protection of biometric data

Identification of persons by way of biometric features is an emerging phenomenon. Over the years, biometric recognition has received much attention due to its need for security. Amongst the many existing biometrics, fingerprints are considered to be one of the most practical ones. Techniques such as watermarking and steganography have been used in attempt to improve security of biometric data. Watermarking is the process of embedding information into a carrier file for the protection of ownership/copyright of music, video or image files, whilst steganography is the art of hiding information. This paper presents an overview of steganography techniques applied in the protection of biometric data in fingerprints. It is novel in that we also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of targeted and blind steganalysis strategies for breaking steganography techniques.