Integration of biometrics and steganography: A comprehensive review

The use of an individual’s biometric characteristics to advance authentication and verification technology beyond the current dependence on passwords has been the subject of extensive research for some time. Since such physical characteristics cannot be hidden from the public eye, the security of digitised biometric data becomes paramount to avoid the risk of substitution or replay attacks. Biometric systems have readily embraced cryptography to encrypt the data extracted from the scanning of anatomical features. Significant amounts of research have also gone into the integration of biometrics with steganography to add a layer to the defence-in-depth security model, and this has the potential to augment both access control parameters and the secure transmission of sensitive biometric data. However, despite these efforts, the amalgamation of biometric and steganographic methods has failed to transition from the research lab into real-world applications. In light of this review of both academic and industry literature, we suggest that future research should focus on identifying an acceptable level steganographic embedding for biometric applications, securing exchange of steganography keys, identifying and address legal implications, and developing industry standards

A New Hybrid Embedding Method in Iris Biometric System

The challenging part in achieving high security biometrics data is viewed from the engineering perspective which includes security, accuracy, speeds and application size. The objective of this paper is to increase the accuracy through an embedding technique. A combination of modified pixel value differencing and wavelet decomposition techniques were used in this study. The pixels were scanned in a new direction embedded with the wavelet difference matrix. The system is developed using both eyes and each eye is enrolled with 10 snaps. The embedding process creates the embedded iris feature and the reverse process of embedding is known as de-embedding. Two thousands iris from CASIA database are used. The application is developed using MATLAB and executed for 5-20 iterations. The new hybrid system shows better performance in accuracy in terms of False Acceptance Rate (FAR), embedding capacity and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values as benchmarked with the existing method. The finding shows that the output of the embedding capacity is 743801 and 41.10dB of PSNR. The good PSNR value is between 40-50 dB. The implication of this study contributes to a higher accuracy in iris biometric security. Future work should focus on the genetic algorithm to recognize human iris in biometric system

Visual Cryptography with Chaotic Encryption for Biometric Templates

Preserving the privacy of digital biometric data (e.g., fingerprint) stored in a central database has become of paramount importance. It demands high speed decryption/encryption process with restricted computational powers. This work explores the possibility of using visual cryptography with chaotic encryption suitable for imparting security to biometric data such as fingerprint images. By using visual cryptography, the original image is decomposed into two images (called shares or sheets) in such a way that the original image can be revealed only when both images are simultaneously available. The security of the stored image can be further enhanced by doing chaotic encryption to the decomposed images. Typically, a private biometric image is dithered into two host images; these images are then independently encrypted using chaotic systems and are then transmitted and stored in two different database servers such that the identity of the private data is not revealed to either server. During the authentication process, Sheets are overlaid (i.e. super imposed) in order to reconstruct the private image. This work proposes a method for ensuring higher level of security for the images using visual cryptography with chaotic encryption. In the first phase of the project, the use of visual cryptography is explored to preserve the privacy of biometric data. This work is being done using Matlab 200

Application of Stochastic Diffusion for Hiding High Fidelity Encrypted Images

Cryptography coupled with information hiding has received increased attention in recent years and has become a major research theme because of the importance of protecting encrypted information in any Electronic Data Interchange system in a way that is both discrete and covert. One of the essential limitations in any cryptography system is that the encrypted data provides an indication on its importance which arouses suspicion and makes it vulnerable to attack. Information hiding of Steganography provides a potential solution to this issue by making the data imperceptible, the security of the hidden information being a threat only if its existence is detected through Steganalysis. This paper focuses on a study methods for hiding encrypted information, specifically, methods that encrypt data before embedding in host data where the ‘data’ is in the form of a full colour digital image. Such methods provide a greater level of data security especially when the information is to be submitted over the Internet, for example, since a potential attacker needs to first detect, then extract and then decrypt the embedded data in order to recover the original information. After providing an extensive survey of the current methods available, we present a new method of encrypting and then hiding full colour images in three full colour host images with out loss of fidelity following data extraction and decryption. The application of this technique, which is based on a technique called ‘Stochastic Diffusion’ are wide ranging and include covert image information interchange, digital image authentication, video authentication, copyright protection and digital rights management of image data in general

Transparent authentication methodology in electronic education

In the context of on-line assessment in e-learning, a problem arises when a student taking an exam may wish to cheat by handing over personal credentials to someone else to take their place in an exam, Another problem is that there is no method for signing digital content as it is being produced in a computerized environment. Our proposed solution is to digitally sign the participant’s work by embedding voice samples in the transcript paper at regular intervals. In this investigation, we have demonstrated that a transparent stenographic methodology will provide an innovative and practical solution for achieving continuous authentication in an online educational environment by successful insertion and extraction of audio digital signatures

Enhanced Stegano-Cryptographic Model for Secure Electronic Voting

The issue of security in Information and Communication Technology has been identified as the most critical barrier in the widespread adoption of electronic voting (e-voting). Earlier cryptographic models for secure e-voting are vulnerable to attacks and existing stegano-cryptographic models can be manipulated by an eavesdropper. These shortcomings of existing models of secure e-voting are threats to confidentiality, integrity and verifiability of electronic ballot which are critical to overall success of e-democratic decision making through e-voting.This paper develops an enhanced stegano-cryptographic model for secure electronic voting system in poll-site, web and mobile voting scenarios for better citizens’ participation and credible e-democratic election. The electronic ballot was encrypted using Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Rivest-Sharma-Adleman cryptographic algorithm. The encrypted voter’s ballot was scattered and hidden in the Least Significant Bit (LSB) of the cover media using information hiding attribute of modified LSB-Wavelet steganographic algorithm. The image quality of the model, stego object was quantitatively assessed using Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Structural Similarity Index Metrics (SSIM).The results after quantitative performance evaluation shows that the developed stegano-cryptographic model has generic attribute of secured e-voting relevant for the delivery of credible e-democratic decision making. The large scale implementation of the model would be useful to deliver e-voting of high electoral integrity and political trustworthiness, where genuine e-elections are conducted for the populace by government authority. Keywords: Electronic Voting, Cryptography, Steganography, Video, Image, Wavelet, Securit

An Enhancement of Data Hiding Imperceptibility using Slantlet Transform (SLT)

This study proposes a hybrid technique in securing image data that will be applied in telemedicine in future. Based on the web-based ENT diagnosis system using Virtual Hospital Server (VHS), patients are able to submit their physiological signals and multimedia data through the internet. In telemedicine system, image data need more secure to protect data patients in web. Cryptography and steganography are techniques that can be used to secure image data implementation. In this study, steganography method has been applied using hybrid between Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Slantlet Transform (SLT) technique. DCT is calculated on blocks of independent pixels, a coding error causes discontinuity between blocks resulting in annoying blocking artifact. While SLT applies on entire image and offers better energy compaction compare to DCT without any blocking artifact. Furthermore, SLT splits component into numerous frequency bands called sub bands or octave bands. It is known that SLT is a better than DWT based scheme and better time localization. Weakness of DCT is eliminated by SLT that employ an improved version of the usual Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Some comparison of technique is included in this study to show the capability of the hybrid SLT and DCT. Experimental results show that optimum imperceptibility is achieved

An improved image steganography scheme based on distinction grade value and secret message encryption

Steganography is an emerging and greatly demanding technique for secure information communication over the internet using a secret cover object. It can be used for a wide range of applications such as safe circulation of secret data in intelligence, industry, health care, habitat, online voting, mobile banking and military. Commonly, digital images are used as covers for the steganography owing to their redundancy in the representation, making them hidden to the intruders, hackers, adversaries, unauthorized users. Still, any steganography system launched over the Internet can be cracked upon recognizing the stego cover. Thus, the undetectability that involves data imperceptibility or concealment and security is the significant trait of any steganography system. Presently, the design and development of an effective image steganography system are facing several challenges including low capacity, poor robustness and imperceptibility. To surmount such limitations, it is important to improve the capacity and security of the steganography system while maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). Based on these factors, this study is aimed to design and develop a distinction grade value (DGV) method to effectively embed the secret data into a cover image for achieving a robust steganography scheme. The design and implementation of the proposed scheme involved three phases. First, a new encryption method called the shuffle the segments of secret message (SSSM) was incorporated with an enhanced Huffman compression algorithm to improve the text security and payload capacity of the scheme. Second, the Fibonacci-based image transformation decomposition method was used to extend the pixel's bit from 8 to 12 for improving the robustness of the scheme. Third, an improved embedding method was utilized by integrating a random block/pixel selection with the DGV and implicit secret key generation for enhancing the imperceptibility of the scheme. The performance of the proposed scheme was assessed experimentally to determine the imperceptibility, security, robustness and capacity. The standard USC-SIPI images dataset were used as the benchmarking for the performance evaluation and comparison of the proposed scheme with the previous works. The resistance of the proposed scheme was tested against the statistical, X2 , Histogram and non-structural steganalysis detection attacks. The obtained PSNR values revealed the accomplishment of higher imperceptibility and security by the proposed DGV scheme while a higher capacity compared to previous works. In short, the proposed steganography scheme outperformed the commercially available data hiding schemes, thereby resolved the existing issues