A Critical Study of Image based Steganographic Techniques for Information Hiding

Abstract

In present scenario the security of the confidential information has become an important issue. It has become a challenge as the large amount of data is exchanged on the internet. To protect these data from unauthorized access and tampering various methods for data hiding like cryptography, hashing, authentication, watermarking, etc. have been developed and are in practice today. In this paper we will be discussing one such data hiding technique called Steganography. Steganography is a tool for hiding information inside an image. For hiding secret data in digital images, large varieties of steganographic techniques are available, some are more complex than others, and all of them have their respective pros and cons. This paper intends to give thorough understanding and evolution of different existing digital image steganography techniques of data hiding in spatial, transform and compression domains. It covers and integrates recent research work without going in to much detail. The survey results show that the steganography has played a very beneficial role in various applications. It increased the level of information security with a wide use of its techniques. It would be very useful and provide a better platform for the beginners who want to work in steganography.

 

Keywords: Steganography; digital image steganography; cover image; stego image; data hiding; information security.