Hybrid Image Steganography Method with Random Embedding of Encrypted Message

The main challenge for embedding encrypted message in an input image is to get better the security of the confidential information through hybrid-based image steganography method. Moreover, earlier LSB based solutions existed in which either secret information embedded without encryption or embedded un-randomly in an image and existing MSB based information concealing solutions minimizes information capacity and image quality too. Most of existing steganographic systems either based on  LSB or  MSB but only some hybrid solutions are available in which either the confidential message is not encoded before embedding it into the image and the embedding system is also not random based.  The existing well known hybrid based image steganography techniques are not only deficient in performance but also deficient in embedding of encoded data in an image. To overcome these issues, a Hybrid-LSB-MSB based image steganography and multi-operation data encryption method is proposed in this article. Proposed method is not only randomly embeds the confidential information in a cover image but also provided the facility to encode the confidential information before substituting. The Hybrid-LSB-MSB based proposed image steganography method is compared with earlier Hybrid based image steganography method by using Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values including payload capacity. Higher PSNR and Lower MSE values signify effective steganography quality. The experimental results show that proposed method retains higher PSNR and lesser MSE values as contrasted to the existing methods thereby effective in steganographic properties.