Research Proposal on Efficient Information Hiding Techniques Using Ste

Question: Describe about the Research Proposal on Efficient Information Hiding Techniques Using Steganography. Answer: Introduction The increase in the number of attacks during the exchange of information electronically has given rise to a number of applications and mechanisms for protecting against such cyber threats. Steganography is a technique used for hiding messages (Zielinska, Mazurczyk and Szczypiorski 2014). There are different categories of steganography including images, text, protocol as well as audio or video. There are several approaches to apply steganography for hiding such different types of information. Problem Statement The use of steganography is useful for encrypting confidential information before electronically exchanging so as to protect against unwanted stealing or hacking of valuable data. More precisely, the main purpose of implementing steganography is to avoid drawing suspicion to the presence of a particular hidden information or message (Wang, Wei and Han 2015). This approach of steganography for hiding message has been rapidly becoming popular in several application areas such as digital audio, images, videos that contain hidden copyright notice or serial number or preventing against direct and unauthorized copying. Research Questions The research questions formulated for the present study will be as follows: What are the different techniques of information hiding using steganography? How can security tool based on steganographic techniques be implemented for hiding information containing image and text files? Background / Literature Review / Related Work Several steganography techniques can be applied for hiding messages in multimedia objects. However, some of the common approaches involve masking and filtering; transform techniques and least significant bit (LSB) insertion (Hamid et al. 2012). The goal of steganography is communicating in a secure and undetectable manner, thereby avoiding suspicion to the electronic exchange of hidden data. Transform techniques modulates the coefficients in a transform domain for embedding the message (Pandit, Khope and Student 2016). It includes Wavelet Transform, Discrete Fourier Transform or Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) applied in JPEG compression. Masking and filtering techniques marks the image to hide data. It is significantly similar to the method of paper watermarks and is generally restricted to images that are gray scale and 24 bits. LSB insertion uses an approach to directly embed the bits of the message into the LSB plane of the cover image in a specific sequence. Methodology The research method will be based on a secondary analysis of previous studies and results as well as an experimental study. Therefore, it will follow a deductive approach with a descriptive research design for exploring the different steganographic techniques already in use. After that, the researcher will dive into an empirical implementation of a security tool using steganography is applied on information that includes audio and text data. Conclusion The study will contain a detail analysis of the present techniques and approaches of steganography for increasing information confidentially, privacy and security by protecting against digital theft or attacks. The different approaches will be discussed with particular concentration on the LSB approach along with its advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the researcher will attempt to implement one approach to hide information containing audio or text or both. References Hamid, N., Yahya, A., Ahmad, R.B. and Al-Qershi, O.M., 2012. Image steganography techniques: an overview.International Journal of Computer Science and Security (IJCSS),6(3), pp.168-187. Pandit, A.S., Khope, S.R. and Student, F., 2016. Review on Image Steganography.International Journal of Engineering Science,6115. Wang, X., Wei, C. and Han, X., 2015. Steganography forensics method for detecting least significant bit replacement attack.Journal of Electronic Imaging,24(1), pp.013016-013016. Zielinska, E., Mazurczyk, W. and Szczypiorski, K., 2014. Trends in steganography.Communications of the ACM,57(3), pp.86-95.