Micro protocol engineering for unstructured carriers: On the embedding of steganographic control protocols into audio transmissions

Network steganography conceals the transfer of sensitive information within unobtrusive data in computer networks. So-called micro protocols are communication protocols placed within the payload of a network steganographic transfer. They enrich this transfer with features such as reliability, dynamic overlay routing, or performance optimization --- just to mention a few. We present different design approaches for the embedding of hidden channels with micro protocols in digitized audio signals under consideration of different requirements. On the basis of experimental results, our design approaches are compared, and introduced into a protocol engineering approach for micro protocols.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

Employing Psychoacoustic Model for Digital Audio Watermarking

This thesis discusses about digital audio watermarking by employing psychoacoustic model to make the watermarked signal inaudible to the audience. Due to the digital media data able to distribute easily without losing of data information, thus the intellectual property of musical creators and distributor may affected by this kind of circumstance . To prevent this, we propose the usage of spread spectrum technique and psychoacoustic model for embedding process, zero-forcing equalization and detection and wiener filtering for extracting process. Three samples of audio signal have been chosen for this experiment which are categorized as quiet, moderate, and noise state signal. The findings shows that our watermarking scheme achieved the intended purposes which are to test digital audio watermarking by employing psychoacoustic model, to embed different length of messages to test on accuracy of extracted data and to study the suitability on using hash function for verification of modification attacks

On the data hiding theory and multimedia content security applications

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of digital steganography for multimedia content protection. With the increasing development of Internet technology, protection and enforcement of multimedia property rights has become a great concern to multimedia authors and distributors. Watermarking technologies provide a possible solution for this problem. The dissertation first briefly introduces the current watermarking schemes, including their applications in video,, image and audio. Most available embedding schemes are based on direct Spread Sequence (SS) modulation. A small value pseudo random signature sequence is embedded into the host signal and the information is extracted via correlation. The correlation detection problem is discussed at the beginning. It is concluded that the correlator is not optimum in oblivious detection. The Maximum Likelihood detector is derived and some feasible suboptimal detectors are also analyzed. Through the calculation of extraction Bit Error Rate (BER), it is revealed that the SS scheme is not very efficient due to its poor host noise suppression. The watermark domain selection problem is addressed subsequently. Some implications on hiding capacity and reliability are also studied. The last topic in SS modulation scheme is the sequence selection. The relationship between sequence bandwidth and synchronization requirement is detailed in the work. It is demonstrated that the white sequence commonly used in watermarking may not really boost watermark security. To address the host noise suppression problem, the hidden communication is modeled as a general hypothesis testing problem and a set partitioning scheme is proposed. Simulation studies and mathematical analysis confirm that it outperforms the SS schemes in host noise suppression. The proposed scheme demonstrates improvement over the existing embedding schemes. Data hiding in audio signals are explored next. The audio data hiding is believed a more challenging task due to the human sensitivity to audio artifacts and advanced feature of current compression techniques. The human psychoacoustic model and human music understanding are also covered in the work. Then as a typical audio perceptual compression scheme, the popular MP3 compression is visited in some length. Several schemes, amplitude modulation, phase modulation and noise substitution are presented together with some experimental results. As a case study, a music bitstream encryption scheme is proposed. In all these applications, human psychoacoustic model plays a very important role. A more advanced audio analysis model is introduced to reveal implications on music understanding. In the last part, conclusions and future research are presented

A review on structured scheme representation on data security application

With the rapid development in the era of Internet and networking technology, there is always a requirement to improve the security systems, which secure the transmitted data over an unsecured channel. The needs to increase the level of security in transferring the data always become the critical issue. Therefore, data security is a significant area in covering the issue of security, which refers to protect the data from unwanted forces and prevent unauthorized access to a communication. This paper presents a review of structured-scheme representation for data security application. There are five structured-scheme types, which can be represented as dual-scheme, triple-scheme, quad-scheme, octal-scheme and hexa-scheme. These structured-scheme types are designed to improve and strengthen the security of data on the application

The Review of Sound-based Steganographic Techniques

The review of steganographic sound-based methods developed in the last ten years are presented in this article. The methods are grouped according to the domain of embedding the hidden information. The requirements introduced by phonographic industry were presented too.Запропоновано оглядовий аналіз найважливіших напрямків досліджень в стеганографії за остатні 10 років з систематизацією методів за способом приховування інформації в звукових контейнерах та врахуванням розвитку акустичної техніки

Semifragile Speech Watermarking Based on Least Significant Bit Replacement of Line Spectral Frequencies

There are various techniques for speech watermarking based on modifying the linear prediction coefficients (LPCs); however, the estimated and modified LPCs vary from each other even without attacks. Because line spectral frequency (LSF) has less sensitivity to watermarking than LPC, watermark bits are embedded into the maximum number of LSFs by applying the least significant bit replacement (LSBR) method. To reduce the differences between estimated and modified LPCs, a checking loop is added to minimize the watermark extraction error. Experimental results show that the proposed semifragile speech watermarking method can provide high imperceptibility and that any manipulation of the watermark signal destroys the watermark bits since manipulation changes it to a random stream of bits

New Digital Audio Watermarking Algorithms for Copyright Protection

This thesis investigates the development of digital audio watermarking in addressing issues such as copyright protection. Over the past two decades, many digital watermarking algorithms have been developed, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The main aim of this thesis was to develop a new watermarking algorithm within an existing Fast Fourier Transform framework. This resulted in the development of a Complex Spectrum Phase Evolution based watermarking algorithm. In this new implementation, the embedding positions were generated dynamically thereby rendering it more difficult for an attacker to remove, and watermark information was embedded by manipulation of the spectral components in the time domain thereby reducing any audible distortion. Further improvements were attained when the embedding criteria was based on bin location comparison instead of magnitude, thereby rendering it more robust against those attacks that interfere with the spectral magnitudes. However, it was discovered that this new audio watermarking algorithm has some disadvantages such as a relatively low capacity and a non-consistent robustness for different audio files. Therefore, a further aim of this thesis was to improve the algorithm from a different perspective. Improvements were investigated using an Singular Value Decomposition framework wherein a novel observation was discovered. Furthermore, a psychoacoustic model was incorporated to suppress any audible distortion. This resulted in a watermarking algorithm which achieved a higher capacity and a more consistent robustness. The overall result was that two new digital audio watermarking algorithms were developed which were complementary in their performance thereby opening more opportunities for further research

Digital steganalysis: Computational intelligence approach

In this paper, we present a consolidated view of digital media steganalysis from the perspective of computational intelligence.In our analysis the digital media steganalysis is divided into three domains which are image steganalysis, audio steganalysis, and video steganalysis.Three major computational intelligence methods have also been identified in the steganalysis domains which are bayesian, neural network, and genetic algorithm.Each of these methods has its own pros and cons