Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516) was a German Abbot. His writing, “Steganographia: hoe est ars per
occultam scripturam animi sui voluntatem absentibus aperiendi certa” is ostensibly a work describing
methods to communicate with spirits. A rough translation of the Latin title is: “Steganography: the art
through which writing is hidden requiring recovery by the minds of men.” Although people have hidden
secrets in plain sight—now called steganography—throughout the ages, the recent growth in computational
power and technology has propelled it to the forefront of today’s
security techniques.