In-Depth Analysis of Various Techniques Employing Image Steganography

Abstract

With the rapid advancements in digital libraries, bombardistic growth of the web and the easier and quicker communication techniques in recent years, the confidentiality and security of the sensitive confidential data has become of prime and supreme concern. . Various traditional methods like cryptography[l], hashing, authentication have been developed to protect all sensitive data from unauthorized access and tampering, are even in practice till date. At the same time, medical images obtained from X-ray machines, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ultrasound, and Computed Tomography (CT), archiving of these has become a major research area because of serious concern regarding copyright protection and authority identification. These medical images are transferred through internet connection and stored in Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)[2] for various purposes. There after Compression technique is applied on medical images as these medical images are large in size and require more bandwidth. For telediagnosis purpose and insurance claim purpose we need to provide security and integrity so no one tries to make malicious attempts on these images. For instance, there are certain applications may need some larger confidential message to be hidden and some need total concealing of the secret message. Here, in this paper an insight about image steganography is provided- A new technique of concealing/hiding sensitive information in any media which transfers it securely over the underlying hackable and insecure communication network where in various techniques like Discrete Cosine Transform (OCT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Least Significant Bit (LSB), Hash-LSB and Spread Spectrum, MNEB (Maximum Number of Embedded Bits), SSIS (Spread Spectrum Image Steganography) and n-LSB Planes are employed. PSNR, MSE, NCC values are used to compare these methods.