Observe the above image, closely.

Use whatever you need to look at the tree pictured above, squint, zoom in, whatever you have to do.  Do you see a cat?  Are we rescuing a cat from a tree?  Do you see even a tail or paw?  "No mate, it's just a bloody tree." Is probably close to what you were thinking.  I promise you, there's a cat.  

Let me show you a picture of said cat:

(Image Source for Cat and Tree)

At this point your thought process is probably something like "Not possible.  You're full of shit.  There's no cat in that tree, especially one as fat as the one you just posted.  I'd be blind to not see it.".

Before you get upset, and tell me I sent you on a wild goose chase for a non-existent cat in a tree, allow me to explain.  It's actually quite simple once you understand how it was hidden.  The process is just one word, one simple word that hid that cat in a tree in a way that you'd never see with your naked eye:

Steganography

Stega-what-now?  Steganography is the amazing process of hiding words, messages, or information inside other media (texts, pictures, even word documents).  This process works differently than cryptography, which is the art of encrypting messages or images and the like.  The difference is this:

When you encrypt something, it's usually easy to find and know that it's encrypted, because encrypted data sticks out like a sore thumb, it's usually a bunch of numbers and letters all randomly jumbled together in no coherent way.  When you use steganography to hide something, you're hiding it in an already "normal" message, so people don't typically realize there's a second hidden message unless they're actively looking for it, like the cat and the tree posted above.

I found a guy on YouTube by the name of Computerphile that has a brilliant way of explaining steganography:

A Brief History of Steganography

Dating back as far as ancient Greece, people would even go so far as to steganographically hide messages in someone's hair, send them on a journey, and have the person that needed to receive the message shave the courier's head to reveal the message.  It's been used in World War II, and even in Cold War counter-propaganda.  It's had its uses throughout history, and in modern times it gets even better, since now messages can be hidden in digital media like images or even audio files.

Examples of Steganography

There are countless variations of steganography, but I wanted to supply you with some cool and simple examples besides just the tree-cat at the beginning of this post:

Null Cipher:

Above is an example of a null cipher, a form of text hidden in text steganography.  If you only read the first letter (or any specified letter for other forms), you will find the hidden message that reads: PERSHING SAILS FROM NY JUNE I.

Template:

Another form of text on text steganography is one that involves using a template to cover certain portions of the message, revealing the true message with the remaining words, like this one:

(Example 1 + 2 Sources)

Please be aware that there are many forms of steganography, and most of them much more complicated than the examples I provided.  I wanted to give you guys simple examples so this post wasn't mind-numbing or boring.

What does Steganography mean for you?

Is it possibly a new way to hide your sensitive information in a way only you would know about?  Are there things hidden in your every day life that you'd normally never notice?  Is it time to write a secret confessional love letter to your person of choice?

It all really depends on you.  For the most part, steganography has died down a bit in the digital age, since encryption has taken over, but it still offers a valid alternative for securing content in a way that's less noticeable.  You could use this newfound knowledge and secure some personal information with it, or you could move on as if you'd never learned about it.  But now, every time you look at an image on the internet, you'll constantly wonder what that picture is hiding from you...

LIKE A CAT.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something new!  For more interesting content, be sure to Follow me @voltarius!