Pixel grouping of digital images for reversible data hiding

Pixel Grouping (PG) of digital images has been a key consideration in recent development of the Reversible Data Hiding (RDH) schemes. While a PG kernel with neighborhood pixels helps compute image groups for better embedding rate-distortion performance, only horizontal neighborhood pixel group of size 1×3 has so far been considered. In this paper, we formulate PG kernels of sizes 3×1, 2×3 and 3×2 and investigate their effect on the rate-distortion performance of a prominent PG-based RDH scheme. Specially, a kernel of size 3×2 (or 2×3) that creates a pair of pixel-trios having triangular shape and offers a greater possible correlation among the pixels. This kernel thus can be better utilized for improving a PG-based RDH scheme. Considering this, we develop and present an improved PG-based RDH scheme and the computational models of its key processes. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed RDH scheme offers reasonably better  embedding rate-distortion performance than the original scheme

A Reversible Image Watermarking Scheme with High Contrast Visible Watermarks

[[abstract]]A reversible image watermarking scheme recovers the original host image when extracting the embedded watermarks. General reversible image watermarking scheme embeds invisible watermarks. This paper presents a reversible image watermarking scheme with embedding highly contrast visible watermarks. The host image first segments to non-overlapped blocks. Each block then uses two watermarking schemes including difference-expansion based invisible watermarking and high-contrast visible watermarking to embed one watermark bit into the host image. The difference-expansion based invisible watermarking scheme is adopted for extracting the watermark bit. Some extra information is therefore needed to be recorded. The high contrast visible watermarking scheme embeds significant visible watermarks. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme embeds high contrast visible watermarks and the watermarks can be extracted perfectly.[[notice]]補正完

A Survey on Recent Reversible Watermarking Techniques

Watermarking is a technique to protect the copyright of digital media such as image, text, music and movie. Reversible watermarking is a technique in which watermark can be removed to completely restore the original image. Reversible watermarking of digital content allows full extraction of the watermark along with the complete restoration of the original image. For the last few years, reversible watermarking techniques are gaining popularity due to its applications in important and sensitive areas like military communication, healthcare, and law-enforcement. Due to the rapid evolution of reversible watermarking techniques, a latest review of recent research in this field is highly desirable. In this survey, the performances of different latest reversible watermarking techniques are discussed on the basis of various characteristics of watermarking

Difference-Expansion Based Reversible and Visible Image Watermarking Scheme

[[conferencetype]]國內[[conferencedate]]20150817~20150819[[booktype]]電子版[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]JiaoSi, Taiwa

Enhancement of digital grayscale image watermarking using sparse matrix

Watermarking is a form of steganography that proved its worth in successfully protecting copyright information. It is the process of embedding data inside an audio or video or image message such that the embedded data is possible to be detected or extracted later. The core focus in watermarking techniques is their performance which is determined by imperceptibility along with robustness and capacity. These properties are often conflicting, which needs to accept some trade-offs between them. Despite the successes recorder in the area of digital watermarking, several challenges continue to persist particularly in the Areas of balancing these factors. This research aims to enhance the the processes in the watermarking technique for archieving imperceptibility with an acceptable balancing and enhance the security. The research proposed a new scheme using sparse matrix for improving the effectiveness of watermarked image using digital wavelet transform and inverse discrete wavelet transform to locate the best place and level in the image to embed the watermark. Sparse matrix is used to enhance the embedding process by selecting the proper coefficient. For more secure watermarking, additional encryption layer is utilized to increase the difficulty towards unauthorized extraction. The proposed technique generated the proper message size for each sub image based on the PSNR, which is used as an indicator for selecting the suitable level of embedding and for detecting the possibility of attacks. The proposed scheme improves watermarking quality by using the sparse matrix to select the appropriate coefficient for embedding. The experiments showed that the proposed scheme enhances 2.8479 dB of quality (PSNR) or equivalent to 5.3 % of improvements. The research proposed scheme achieved better PSNR in comparison with other research

Robust Digital Image Steganography Within Coefficient Difference On Integer Haar Wavelet Transform

The development of digital information has lead to increasing demands on information security technology in order to protect the confidentiality of information. Digital steganography is one of technologies that is capable of protecting the information from unauthorized interception. It is due to its capability to hide the embedded of the information without attracting the eavesdropper’s attention. Among digital media, digital image is the most widely used medium for steganography. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is a well known technique in digital image steganography. The use of DCT on small blocks may pose blocking effects and unintended artifacts on the overall image. These disadvantages of DCT can be eliminated by using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) which is more compatible with the Human Visual System (HVS). However the floating point of DWT can causes some loss of information. On the other hand, Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT) represented in finite precision can avoid the problem of floating point precision in DWT. In this paper, the messages are embedded on the 1-level Integer Haar Wavelet Transform (IHWT) using coefficient difference scheme that is adopted from Pixel Value Differencing (PVD). The messages are embedded on the difference values of two adjacent wavelet coefficients. The result shows that the proposed method can easily outperform the existing method that employ IHWT and Pixel Mapping Method (PMM) in term of imperceptibility as well as the maximum capacity

Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructures

This book contains the manuscripts that were accepted for publication in the MDPI Special Topic "Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure" after a rigorous peer-review process. Authors from academia, government and industry contributed their innovative solutions, consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity. The book contains 16 articles: an editorial explaining current challenges, innovative solutions, real-world experiences including critical infrastructure, 15 original papers that present state-of-the-art innovative solutions to attacks on critical systems, and a review of cloud, edge computing, and fog's security and privacy issues

Secure covert communications over streaming media using dynamic steganography

Streaming technologies such as VoIP are widely embedded into commercial and industrial applications, so it is imperative to address data security issues before the problems get really serious. This thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation of secure covert communications over streaming media using dynamic steganography. A covert VoIP communications system was developed in C++ to enable the implementation of the work being carried out. A new information theoretical model of secure covert communications over streaming media was constructed to depict the security scenarios in streaming media-based steganographic systems with passive attacks. The model involves a stochastic process that models an information source for covert VoIP communications and the theory of hypothesis testing that analyses the adversary‘s detection performance. The potential of hardware-based true random key generation and chaotic interval selection for innovative applications in covert VoIP communications was explored. Using the read time stamp counter of CPU as an entropy source was designed to generate true random numbers as secret keys for streaming media steganography. A novel interval selection algorithm was devised to choose randomly data embedding locations in VoIP streams using random sequences generated from achaotic process. A dynamic key updating and transmission based steganographic algorithm that includes a one-way cryptographical accumulator integrated into dynamic key exchange for covert VoIP communications, was devised to provide secure key exchange for covert communications over streaming media. The discrete logarithm problem in mathematics and steganalysis using t-test revealed the algorithm has the advantage of being the most solid method of key distribution over a public channel. The effectiveness of the new steganographic algorithm for covert communications over streaming media was examined by means of security analysis, steganalysis using non parameter Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon statistical testing, and performance and robustness measurements. The algorithm achieved the average data embedding rate of 800 bps, comparable to other related algorithms. The results indicated that the algorithm has no or little impact on real-time VoIP communications in terms of speech quality (< 5% change in PESQ with hidden data), signal distortion (6% change in SNR after steganography) and imperceptibility, and it is more secure and effective in addressing the security problems than other related algorithms