Improvised Image Steganography & Cryptography Using LSB Information Hiding Algorithm

Steganography and cryptography are most popular and highly used technique to tackle data/information so that its existence can be hidden. These techniques can be applied in computer science mainly for data transmission of highly secured files and documents between international governments, to protect e-mail messages, and very importantly credit card information, and corporate data, etc. Cryptography manipulates a data so it cannot be understood whereas Steganography hides the data so that it seems it never existed. A secret message, for example, might produce suspicion on the receiver side while a hidden data generated with steganographic technique will not. Steganography can be utilized when cryptography is not allowed. When encryption and cryptography are deprived, steganography can come into picture where a secret data or message can be passed on secretly. Steganography does not work when the “foe� is able to recognize the content of the secret message, cryptography does not work when the “foe� detects a secret message lying in the steganographic medium. The practices which study techniques for decoding secret messages and recognizing hidden data are called cryptanalysis and steganalysis.The aim of this paper is to build a system to embed secret data inside cover file using an improved LSB information hiding algorithm (using 3rd significant bit), using a combination of information hiding and cryptography. Through the implementation and comparison of the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), it shall be concluded that the improved LSB information hiding algorithm using the encryption technology is better than general LSB steganographic method with better security and higher PSNR.