An Enhanced Mechanism for Image Steganography Using Sequential Colour Cycle Algorithm

Several problems arise among the existing LSB-based image steganographic schemes due to distortion in a stego-image and limited payload capacity. Thus, a proposed scheme has been developed with the aims to help in improving the payload of the secret data at the same time retaining the quality of the stego-image produced within an acceptance threshold. This study has led to the modification of the current LSB substitution algorithm by delivering a new algorithm namely sequential colour cycle. For achieving a higher security, multi-layered steganography can be performed by embedding a secret data into multiple layers of cover-images. The performance evaluation has been tested and proven that the improvement of embedding ratio at 1:2 for the proposed algorithm can be achieved and the value of the image quality is not falling below the threshold of distortion.