Title: Genetic algorithms based data hiding scheme for digital images with LSBMR

Authors: P.M. Siva Raja; E. Baburaj

Addresses: Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Sun College of Engineering and Technology, Nagercoil, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Modern information hiding technology plays a vital role in information security. Steganography is the art and science of scripting hidden messages in such a manner that no one, except the sender and directed receiver realise the existence of the message. Image steganography is the most well-liked method for message cover up. In LSBMR, two covert bits is fixed into each embedding unit and the threshold value for region selection is determined. The major disadvantage of this scheme is the total difference is taken as the threshold value. In this paper, LSB matching revisited (LSBMR) image steganography using genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed, in which genetic algorithm is used to select the embedding regions according to the size of the secret message and to optimise the threshold value of the selected image regions. Experimental analysis shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing methods in terms of capacity and security.

Keywords: image steganography; message concealment; information hiding; region selection; genetic algorithms; data hiding; digital images; LSBMR; information security; LSB matching revisited; least significant bit.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICS.2014.059787

International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2014 Vol.6 No.1, pp.51 - 62

Received: 03 Jan 2013
Accepted: 30 Aug 2013

Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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