Evaluation of the least significant bit-based steganography’s performance using elliptic curve cryptography
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kasu Journal of Computer Science
Abstract
The importance of data security is growing for companies trying to safeguard sensitive information.
Cryptography and steganography are two widely used methods. Steganography enables the concealment of
secret information within digital content to reduce suspicions. Even though the Least Significant Bit (LSB)
technique is widely utilized, when applied alone, it is still vulnerable to security breaches. Traditional
approaches that combine LSB steganography with RSA encryption enhance security but are computationally
expensive, making them less useful for real-time applications like data storage, secure communication, and the
Internet of Things. The need for a robust yet lightweight system that combines encryption and steganography
without compromising performance is thus necessary. This study proposes a hybrid approach that blends LSB
steganography with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). Because it uses less processing power and has lower
key sizes than RSA, ECC was selected to maintain similar security standards. The method was implemented and
evaluated in terms of encryption time, data-hiding capabilities, and efficiency. Experimental results show that
the LSB–ECC framework outperforms the conventional LSB–RSA combination. Specifically, by significantly
reducing encryption time and improving hiding efficiency, ECC offers a more scalable solution for safeguarding
sensitive data. The findings confirm that ECC provides a lighter solution without sacrificing security. ECC's
integration with LSB steganography exhibits exceptional efficiency and security performance, making it
appropriate for contemporary data protection requirements. Adaptive steganographic approaches and testing
on extensive multimedia datasets will be incorporated into future work to further validate robustness against
sophisticated steganalysis and cryptographic attacks.