High Capacity data hiding using LSB Steganography and Encryption

The network provides a method of communication to distribute information to the masses. With the growth of data communication over computer network, the security of information has become a major issue. Steganography and cryptography are two different data hiding techniques. Steganography hides messages inside some other digital media. Cryptography, on the other hand obscures the content of the message. We propose a high capacity data embedding approach by the combination of Steganography and cryptography. In the process a message is first encrypted using transposition cipher method and then the encrypted message is embedded inside an image using LSB insertion method. The combination of these two methods will enhance the security of the data embedded. This combinational methodology will satisfy the requirements such as capacity, security and robustness for secure data transmission over an open channel. A comparative analysis is made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by computing Mean square error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). We analyzed the data hiding technique using the image performance parameters like Entropy, Mean and Standard Deviation. The stego images are tested by transmitting them and the embedded data are successfully extracted by the receiver. The main objective in this paper is to provide resistance against visual and statistical attacks as well as high capacity.