DNA Steganography: Embedding the Secret Messages Using Glass Stack Method and Detecting Errors Made by Different Attacks

Abstract

Cyber threats pose a significant challenge to protecting cloud-based health data, including DNA sequences and patient information. Steganography is a well-known solution to this problem. Recent studies have limitations, such as not reconstructing the cover or enlarging the original sequence, increasing personal data security risks. In this study, we provide a novel data-hiding technique that uses a secret key, bit padding, and exclusive OR (XOR) operation to insert secrets into a pre-processed DNA sequence. The message encryption and pre-processing of the cover are performed using a new glass stack pattern technique. The message encryption and pre-processing processes using the new glass stack pattern method increase the security and robustness of the system. The method embeds 3 bits per nucleotide which is greater than the existing schemes. It has a relatively small DNA expansion which is 50% and has a low risk of breaking security. The method also preserves the biological properties of DNA sequences. Additionally, a parity check approach further improves security by thwarting attacks like man-in-the-middle, chosen stego, and modification attacks that alter the stego DNA. These advances improve the system's overall security capabilities. The experimental findings demonstrate that the suggested method reconstructs the cover, healthcare data, and DNA sequence properly and error-free, and outperforms competing algorithms on all performance metric dimensions. Highlights The scheme implants a maximum of 3 bits per nucleotide with a small expansion. Its cover pre-processing and message encryption using a glass stack pattern makes strong security. The scheme can detect and fix changed bits caused by attacks. A very low cracking probability shows strong security and robustness. The biological properties of the stego DNA sequence are preserved by this scheme.