Processing Speed Comparison of the Least Significant Bit (LSB) Steganography Algorithm on FPGA and Matlab

Abstract

Digital images are images in digital formats or digital media such as hard drives. Digital images consist of bits (0 or 1) called pixels and have a high capacity for storing data and information. Steganography techniques try to hide the existence of confidential data. The Steganography technique perfectly closes secret messages in carrier images with high level security. Information and data will be manipulated so that it can be detected by human eyes. Least Significant Bit (LSB) is the method used in this study. The embedding and extracting processes in the proposed algorithms are performed using Matlab software and FPGA-based hardware simulation using Xilinx ISE. The purpose of this study is to compare the process speed of the LSB steganography algorithm in the two implementations. The input data on the encryption used is data in binary form and Red Green Blue (RGB) images and output data in stego images. Meanwhile, the input data in the decryption is a stego image and the output data is in the form of binary data. The experimental results showed that the steganography algorithm had been successfully performed on FPGA and Matlab. However, the process on FPGA is faster than the process on Matlab. The result of the encryption process is 696000 times faster than Matlab. Meanwhile, the decryption process is 236000 times faster than Matlab.