Enhanced hybrid image security algorithms for high definition images in multiple applications

Abstract

Protection of multimedia information from different types of attackers has become important for people and governments. A high definition image has a large amount of data, and thus, keeping it secret is difficult. Another challenge that security algorithms must face with respect to high definition images in medical and remote sensing applications is pattern appearances, which results from existing regions with high density in the same color, such as background regions. An encryption and hiding based new hybrid image security systems are proposed in this paper for the purpose of keeping high definition images secret. First, one hiding method and two encryption methods are used in two hybrid algorithms. The new hiding algorithm proposed here starts by applying reordering and scrambling operations to the six Most Significant Bit planes of the secret image, and then, it hides them in an unknown scene cover image using adding or subtracting operations. Second, two different ciphering algorithms are used to encrypt the stego-image to obtain two different hybrid image security systems. The first encryption algorithm is based on binary code decomposition, while the second algorithm is a modification of an advanced encryption standard. After evaluating each hybrid algorithm alone, a comparison between the two hybrid systems is introduced to determine the best system. Several parameters were used for the performance, including the visual scene, histogram analysis, entropy, security analysis, and execution time.