Security Enhancement of Image Steganography by Randomization Channel Approach

In today's modern communication world, security of communication is necessary. It prevents misuse of secret information. Security may be provided in many different ways. Protection of the copyright can be provided using watermarking and fingerprinting. Whereas, steganography can be used to protect the actual message one has to send. Steganography is different from the encryption in a way that is makes the communication imperceptible. It means no one can identify whether communication is taking place or not except sender and receiver. It uses a base to transmit actual message. In the following work three experiments have been done for image steganography. Least significant bit based steganography is used for all three experiments. Difference between the three is of the security level and pixels in which data is to be hidden which provides randomization. Main focus is to enhance the security level. First experiment is quite simple with direct hidden process. Second experiment is enhancement of first experiment with small changes in hiding process. A new method is then proposed which is the third experiment. This is more complex than the first two experiments and provides channel randomization which enhances the security level that is the main motive of the steganography. Experimental results are given for third experiment. Mean square error and Peak signal to noise ratio are calculated for all three methods. Comparison between three experiments is done on the basis of mean square error (MSE), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and their level of security. Certain conclusions are then made on the basis of their comparison.