A Study on Secret Data Sharing through Coverless Steganography

Abstract

The basic fundamental of steganography is to conceal the confidential data in designated cover media which will carry the secret message in such a way that no one can suspect it. With the increase in multimedia content over the net, the probability of information being theft is increased. To make confidential communication secure, people choose different data hiding techniques. Recently, steganography has gained popularity in information hiding. Information hiding is a subject that manages the concealing of classified data from attackers and hackers. Though the secret messages are not visible to human eyes but can be noticeable under statistical representation of cover media. The coverless hiding technique doesn’t modify the cover object. However, the cover object is used to transfer confidential data. A mapping relationship is created among cover objects and confidential data by following the characteristics of cover media. The term “coverless” is without any modification in the cover image the confidential data can be sent. The prime advantage of using a coverless approach is, it cannot be detected under steganalysis as no embedding is performed in cover media. This technique has drawn more attention in the data hiding field. Currently, it has been observed that most of the research work in coverless hiding approaches selected text and image as cover media. A very few researchers have considered video as cover media in coverless approach which has plentiful contents and provides the opportunity to explore.