The article provides an overview of information hiding techniques, which have gained increasing importance in various application areas such as digital media, military communications, and digital elections. Information hiding, particularly steganography, involves concealing information within other data to avoid detection. The authors discuss the historical development of these techniques, from ancient methods like hidden messages in music scores to modern digital watermarking and fingerprinting. They highlight the challenges and limitations of current systems, including the ease of circumvention and the need for robustness against attacks. The article also explores specific techniques such as security through obscurity, camouflage, and spreading hidden information, and discusses the use of transform spaces and environment-specific techniques. Finally, it presents generic attacks on watermarking and steganography systems, emphasizing the importance of rigorous testing and the need for better engineering practices to enhance the security of these technologies.The article provides an overview of information hiding techniques, which have gained increasing importance in various application areas such as digital media, military communications, and digital elections. Information hiding, particularly steganography, involves concealing information within other data to avoid detection. The authors discuss the historical development of these techniques, from ancient methods like hidden messages in music scores to modern digital watermarking and fingerprinting. They highlight the challenges and limitations of current systems, including the ease of circumvention and the need for robustness against attacks. The article also explores specific techniques such as security through obscurity, camouflage, and spreading hidden information, and discusses the use of transform spaces and environment-specific techniques. Finally, it presents generic attacks on watermarking and steganography systems, emphasizing the importance of rigorous testing and the need for better engineering practices to enhance the security of these technologies.