Problems of the Regional Energetics (May 2025)
Method for Estimating the Bandwidth Capacity of a Steganographic Communication Channel
Abstract
Ensuring information security in critical infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector, is highly relevant today. Steganographic methods are among the most effective for information protec-tion, but they can also be misused for unauthorized extraction of classified data. This makes ef-fective steganalysis crucial. One key task of steganalysis is estimating the bandwidth capacity of a covert communication channel, which remains unsolved, especially for digital video or image sets under low-bandwidth conditions. The main objectives of the study are to develop a ste-ganalytic method for estimating the bandwidth capacity of a covert channel using an improved approach to analyzing information systems. The method is designed to be effective in low-bandwidth scenarios and independent of container format (lossy or lossless). To achieve these objectives, the study examines how singular value matrix perturbations of video frames/images depend on frame sequence after steganographic embedding. It also defines conditions for the disruption of the stabilization region of singular values, previously identified by the authors in original content. The most important results of this research include the development of an algo-rithmic implementation of the proposed steganalytic method, which demonstrates high efficien-cy under low-bandwidth conditions (≤25%) and is independent of the container format. Testing of the algorithm revealed no cases of incorrect bandwidth estimation. The significance of the obtained results lies in the demonstrated feasibility of adapting the proposed steganalytic method to assess other types of perturbation effects beyond steganographic embedding. This is particu-larly relevant for digital content integrity verification and forensic analysis.
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