Data hiding approach based on stationary wavelet transform

Data hiding is a tremendous and fast growing multidisciplinary field, which conceals the existence of secret data. Security and the privacy of the data over internet and communication technique is a prime concern among content owner. To avoid the unauthorized access of data over communication, a novel and reliable data hiding technique is proposed in this study based on powerful standard stream cipher algorithm and Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT). At first, the original image is decomposed by SWT and four sub bands are obtained. The obtained sub bands are encrypted by using encryption key, which is generated by stream cipher algorithm. After that the secret data is embedded with encrypted sub-bands by using data hiding key and transmits over transmitter one by one. The secret sub-band is retrieved at the receiver side by using appropriate data hiding key otherwise receiver couldn´t access the secret sub-band. Similarly, the original image content is retrieved by appropriate decryption key along with SWT reconstruction.