Efficient image steganography approaches based on mix column transform technique

Abstract

Steganography is the science of hiding a secret message in cover media, without any perceptual distortion of the cover media. Using steganography, information can be hidden in the carrier items such as images, videos, sounds files, text files, while performing data transmission. In image steganography field, it is a major concern of the researchers how to improve the capacity of hidden data into host image without causing any statistically significant modification. In this work, a novel orientation for data hiding within transform domain of the color images is presented, which is represented with two schemes: Data Hiding Approach based on Mix Column Transform (DHAMCT) and Enhanced Data Hiding Approach based on Mix Column Transform (EDHAMCT). The novelty of these schemes comes from the use of Mix Column Transform (MCT) technique in image data hiding which is an essential step of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. These proposed schemes can hide large amount of information without affecting the imperceptibility aspect of the stego-image and at the same time, they increase the security level of the system by using some novel method for embedding based on a distinct type of transform - called Mix Column Transform. The proposed schemes are based on dividing an image into blocks, then applying the proposed transform on these blocks and hiding the secret message within those. The results and comparisons have proven the ability of the proposed schemes in balancing among the three critical properties for any steganography system: embedding capacity, security, and imperceptibility.