An adaptive steganographic method for color images based on LSB substitution and pixel value differencing

Data transmission in open access environments, such the Internet, has raised several security issues. Steganography has been one of the effective methodologies for concealing the existence of secret data by hiding it in a cover medium or carrier. Although several steganographic approaches have been proposed in the literature, this area is still active in research. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel steganographic approach that integrates the idea of pixel indicator with variations of two common steganographic schemes, namely least-significant bit (LSB) and pixel-value differencing (PVD). The aim is to increase the hiding capacity in color images without significant degradation in the quality of the cover image. Also it adds another level of security by varying the technique used for each color channel.