Title: Text embedding in image using an optimisation-based key generation method

Authors: Shihab A. Shawkat; Najiba Tagougui; Monji Kherallah

Addresses: National School of Electronics and Telecommunications of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia; Department of Quality Assurance and Academic Performance, University of Samarra, Iraq ' Department of Computer Science Engineering, Higher Institute of Computer Science and Multimedia, University of Sfax, Tunisia ' Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: Data hiding capacity and image quality of the cover object are important factors in text steganography, and data encryption is being widely employed to secure data in order to provide confidentiality and data privacy. A novel method for encryption and decryption message through optimisation using GAs is presented, which aims to maintain the security of the message via increasing the complexity of the key used in the encryption. The method is used to hide the ciphertext in colour and greyscale images of different sizes. The cover image was divided into several segments (2 * 2, 4 * 4) so that the ciphertext was hidden perfectly by GA. The results in this study using PSNR, MSE, STD, BER, entropy, histogram are more effective, robust, secure, and resistant to common attacks. The purpose of this study is to increase the amount of data to be hidden and to ensure high image quality.

Keywords: information security; data hiding; text hiding; encryption algorithm; decryption algorithm; genetic algorithm; GA; standard deviation; STD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEI.2023.133072

International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics, 2023 Vol.11 No.3, pp.229 - 254

Received: 15 Jan 2023
Accepted: 25 Mar 2023
Published online: 29 Aug 2023 *

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