Inspiration
We were inspired to create free unlimited storage space due to the limited amount of free storage and the effects of lowering the quality of stored files at times. Also, one of our goals was to learn about least significant bit steganography and learn interesting ways to encrypt data, along with being to exploit resources and broadening their uses for more than their intended purpose.
What it does
Bear Bones Storage takes any file and stores the data of that file by embedding the data within a photo that fits the limit size of Google Photos' free unlimited photo storage size by means of LSB steganography. It is then stored as an image file on the user's Google Photos account.
How We built it
This was built using GCP to create an automated cloud architecture that used Google Cloud Functions and Google Cloud Storage. The front end design was created using React.js, along with HTML 5 and CSS 3. This was connected to GCP through endpoints that gave access to the Cloud Storage and Cloud Functions that were triggered on certain events.
Challenges We ran into
Some challenges we ran into were finding a way to encrypt the data without losing information due to the fact that Google Photos used lossy compression. We first dealt with embedding the data in the form of a byte array at the end of the image we wanted to store it as. Since that seemed to lose all information when storing the photo onto Google Photos, we tried embedding the data in the middle of the bytes of the image. Google Photos detected the lack of relevance of the bytes to the png file and disregarded it such that during retrieval the data was gone and never stored. This lead us to bit by bit manipulation and using LSB steganography to store the data in the LSB of the image.
Accomplishments that We're proud of
We are really proud of being able to convert any type of file into encrypted data using LSB steganography. It is really cool to see a file such as an mp3 file being stored in a photo that is a run of the mill image and being able to recover that data in the same format from an image with the encrypted data.
What I learned
We learned that it is possible to extend the intended functionality of products for uses that are beneficial to others. Also, we learned a lot about system design and having constraints such as the file limit size of Google Photos and dealing with its use of lossy compression.
What's next for Bear Bones Storage
Next for Bear Bones Storage is being able to upgrade our UI/UX and facilitating the process of unlimited storage even more. Also, we want to find a way to send the data directly to Google Photos and recover it without dealing with Google Storage.
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