DATA HIDING USING RANDOM PERMUTATION AND DETECTION WITH IMAGE QUALITY MEASURES (IQMs)

ABSTRACT

Image Steganography is defined as hiding a secret message within an image in such a way that others cannot discern the presence or contents of the hidden message.  Steganalysis has recently received a great deal of attention both from law enforcement and the media. In our paper, we present a data hiding technique using Least Significant Bit (LSB) Insertion and for detecting, we choose the Image Quality Metrics (IQMs), to distinguish between cover-images and stego-images. To provide additional security, we include an encryption and decryption algorithm before using LSB Insertion. The classifier between cover and stego-images obtained from the LSB technique is built using the selected Image Quality Metrics (IQMs) and is trained based on an estimate of the original image. Tabulation results with the chosen feature set and well known steganographic techniques indicate that the approach is simple and straightforward with reasonable accuracy to distinguish between them. Further, our new approach is to implement the Randomized Least Significant Bit (RLSB) insertion technique. This technique also includes the Simple Columnar Transposition technique with multiple rounds (SCTMR), which adds more complexity for the cryptanalyst. This is to change the order of the hidden message ‘s binary format and store it randomly. We propose three layers of security for hiding the message inside the image such that the Steganalyst even detecting the message in the stego-image may not able to decrypt the secret information hidden.

Keywords: – Least Significant Bit (LSB), Steganalysis, Stego-images, Image Quality Metrics (IQMs), Simple Columnar Transposition technique with multiple rounds (SCTMR).

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