An Automated Security Approach of Video Steganography–Based LSB Using FPGA Implementation

Abstract

Steganography has become one of the most significant techniques to conceal secret data in media files. This paper proposes a novel automated methodology of achieving two levels of security for videos, which comprise encryption and steganography techniques. The methodology enhances the security level of secret data without affecting the accuracy and capacity of the videos. In the first level, the secret data is encrypted based on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm using Java language, which renders the data unreadable. In the second level, the encrypted data is concealed in the video frames (images) using FPGA hardware implementation that renders the data invisible. The steganographic technique used in this work is the least significant bit (LSB) method; a 1–1–0 LSB scheme is used to maintain significantly high frame imperceptibility. The video frames used as cover files are selected randomly by the randomization scheme developed in this work. The randomization method scatters the data throughout the video frames rendering the retrieval of the data in its original order, without a proper key, a challenging task. The experimental results of concealment of secret data in video frames are presented in this paper and compared with those of similar approaches. The performance in terms of area, power dissipation, and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of the proposed method outperformed traditional approaches. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed method is capable of automatically embedding and extracting the secret data at two levels of security on video frames, with a 57.1[Formula: see text]dB average PSNR.