CALL FOR PAPERS

As the production, storage and exchange of information becomes more extensive and important in the functioning of societies, the problem of protecting the information from unintended and undesired usage becomes more complex. In modern societies, protection of information involves many interdependent technological and policy issues related to information confidentiality, integrity, anonymity, authenticity, utility, etc.

Information Hiding techniques are receiving much attention today. Digital audio, video, and images are increasingly furnished with distinguishing but imperceptible marks, which may contain a hidden copyright notice or serial number, or even help to prevent unauthorised copying directly. Digital watermarking and steganography may protect information, conceal secrets, or are used as core primitives in digital rights’ management schemes.

Alongside the abovementioned types of digital media steganography, currently the target of increased interest is Network Steganography – a part of Information Hiding focused on modern networks. It is a method of hiding secret data in users' normal data transmissions. Steganographic techniques arise and evolve with the development of network protocols and mechanisms, and are expected to be used in secret communication or information sharing. Presently, it becomes a hot topic due to the proliferation of information networks and multimedia services in networks and social networks.
The purpose of establishing applications of Information Hiding may be varied – possible uses can fall into the category of legal actions or illicit activity. Frequently the illegal aspect is accentuated – starting from the criminal communication, through information leakage from protected systems, cyber weapon exchange, up to industrial espionage. Recently discovered malware like Duqu and Alureon point to the alleged utilization of Information Hiding techniques in botnets for covert communication in the C&C channels, which proves that Information Hiding poses important challenges to investigators. On the other side of the spectrum lie legitimate uses, which include circumvention of web censorship and surveillance, computer forensics (tracing and identification) and copyright protection (e.g. watermarking images).

This special issue intends to present some of the most relevant ongoing research in the Information Hiding field. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:
• Steganography and steganalysis (steganology)
• Covert/subliminal channels
• Traffic morphing
• Watermarking (algorithms, security, and attacks)
• Novel applications of Information Hiding
• Information Hiding for digital forensics & counter forensics
• Digital rights management
• Emerging trends in Information Hiding
• Fingerprinting and embedding codes
• Lossless/reversible data hiding
• Security metrics for Information Hiding
• Side-information transmission through data hiding
• Signal restoration/enhancement by data hiding
• Theoretical aspects of information hiding

Guest Editors
- Wojciech Mazurczyk, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, email: wmazurczyk@tele.pw.edu.pl
- Krzysztof Szczypiorski, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, email: ksz@tele.pw.edu.pl
- Hui Tian, National Huaqiao University, China, email: cshtian@gmail.com
- Yali Liu, AT&T Labs, USA, email: yl9871@att.com

Papers must be written in English and describe original research not published or currently under review by other journals or conferences. All relevant papers submitted will go through an external review process. Concerning the preparation of the manuscript, please refer to the “Instructions for Authors” page at the journal website, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291939-0122/homepage/ForAuthors.html

Further, the manuscript must be submitted through the online submission system: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scn by selecting the corresponding track. When submitting papers, the authors should identify “Manuscript Type” as “Special Issue”, enter “Running Head” as “SCN-SI-066” and “Special Issue Title” as “Trends in modern Information Hiding: techniques, applications and detection”, respectively.
Contributing authors might also be asked to review some of the papers submitted to this special issue. All papers will be rigorously reviewed based on the quality: original, high scientific quality, well organized and clearly written, sufficient support for assertions and conclusion, appropriate title, abstract includes important points of the paper, satisfactory English, pertinent references, clear tables and figures.
Submissions should be prepared and sent according to the instructions available at:

- Manuscript submission: 1 May 2014 (deadline extended!)
- Acceptance/rejection notification: before 1 August 2014
- Expected publication: 2015