Implementation of cryptography in steganography for enhanced security

The rapid development in technology has had a great influence on the exchange of information. In this modern era, maintaining security during information exchanges is essential. There are many algorithms were used to ensure the exchanged data is confidential, with examples being cryptography and steganography. In this paper, we present a combined of bit matching steganography and Advanced Encryption System (AES) cryptography are used to improve the security of the exchanged data. Bit matching steganography has advantages in terms of payload capacity and image quality. The bit matching algorithm presented here is capable of finding the location of matching pixels and creates a key to retrieve the secret message. The AES algorithm is secure standard cryptography that ensures security of the generated key from attack. The proposed method utilizes the entire color channel to find the bit matching and then encrypts the key generated from the bit matching method before sending it to a receiver. Experimental results show that the proposed method has higher speed, an undistorted image, and unlimited payload capacity when compared with other popular steganography algorithms. Moreover, the proposed method also provides security against statistical steganalysis.