A hybrid approach for data hiding through chaos theory and reversible integer mapping

Abstract

Steganography is the science which deals with hiding the message so that the intruder cannot even detect its existence. This paper proposes an efficient approach which embeds data into the cover image which is in the frequency domain. DCT is applied to the cover image using integer mapping and the encrypted secret is embedded into it using 3, 3, 2 LSB substitution. The encryption is achieved through chaos theory and ceaser cipher technique. The integer mapping is a method which transforms a given image into its DCT transform and transforms back into the spatial domain without any loss. The proposed method provides a high level of security since secret data is encrypted using chaos theory and embedded into DCT transformed cover image.