2025/12/09 by Kumar, Aman, Chaudhary, Ankit
Computer Science · #Advanced Steganography and Watermarking Techniques #Chaos-based Image/Signal Encryption #Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) #Digital Media Forensic Detection #FOS: Computer and information sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.08299
openalex publication_date 2025/12/09 · openalex created_date 2025/12/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In todays digital world, protecting sensitive data is very essential. Steganography hides the existence of secret data instead of its content, providing better security for multimedia communication. This paper proposes a new technique for hiding audio files inside images using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) method optimized by the Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm. HHO is a nature-inspired metaheuristic that imitates the hunting behavior of Harris hawks to find optimal pixel positions for embedding data. The proposed method is evaluated using Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), and Mean Square Error (MSE). Experimental results show that HHO achieves better image quality, robustness, and embedding capacity compared to existing methods.