Image steganography for securing secret data using hybrid hiding model

Abstract

Image steganography is the process of concealing the confidential message in digital images. The purpose of this research is to secure the transmission of an image from attackers. This research introduced an innovative Image Hiding Encryption and Decryption (IHED) for encrypting and decrypting images. Moreover, the encoding process is performed on the Mid-frequency (MF) values are identified by a novel Mid Search African Buffalo Model (MSABM). The efficiency of the proposed model is validated by applying some attacks such as a novel White Floor Square Attack (WFSA), RS steganalysis, Chi-square attack, and visual attack. Furthermore, the proposed methodology showed that the embedded image has high Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), embedding rate, Structural Similarity Index Metric (SSIM) and reduced Mean Square Error (MSE). Finally, the proposed strategy is compared with existing approaches and achieved better results by increasing the security of embedded secrets in the steganography system.