A robust medical image steganography approach based on particle swarm optimization algorithm and quantum walks

Abstract

Medical information plays an essential task in our everyday lives, in which medical data privacy and security constitute an important issue. The confidentiality of medical data can be achieved by applying one or more encryption and data hiding methods. Amidst the development of quantum computers, most medical data confidentiality techniques may be hacked because their construction is based on mathematical models. Most medical data have a long lifetime exceeding 25 years. Therefore, it is an important issue to design a new medical data hiding technique that has the capability to withstand the probable attacks from the side of quantum or digital devices. In this article, we aim to present a novel medical image steganography strategy based on quantum walks, chaotic systems, and particle swarm optimization algorithm. A 3-D chaotic system and quantum walks are utilized for operating particle swarm optimization algorithm, in which the generated velocity sequence is utilized for substituting the confidential data, and the position sequence is utilized for selecting which position in the hosting image will be employed to host the substituted confidential data. The payload capacity of the suggested mechanism is 2 bits per 1 byte, and the average value for PSNR is 44.1, which is big enough for the naked eye to not differentiate the difference between the carrier image and its stego one.