In this era of smartphones and gadgets assisted by high speed internet connectivity, the volume of data transmission and storage have gained a lot. As a result data security and confidentiality has become more important issue than ever. Steganography is one data hiding technique which helps to send some secret message to the receiver by concealing it in a cover file. In this paper, we have focused on the Audio Steganography method. The major challenge in audio steganography is to obtain robust high capacity steganographic systems. This paper presents a secure data transfer technique using Audio Steganography. Here we have proposed a hybrid method combining modified Least Significant Bit (LSB) and spread spectrum based audio steganography methods. We have implemented the proposed method and compared the results with the other methods using two quality measurement techniques, namely, Peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and Mean Square Error (MSE).

Audio Steganography, confidentiality, Data security, Internet, Peak signal to noise ratio(PSNR), Mean Square Error(MSE)

[1] M. Zamani, A. B. A. Manaf, R. B. Ahmad, F. Jaryani, H. Taherdoost, A. M. Zeki, "A Secure Audio Steganography Approach", Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 9-12 Nov. 2009.
[2] G. Nehru, P. Dhar, “A Detailed look of Audio Steganography Techniques using LSB and Genetic Algorithm Approach", IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 9, Issue 1, No 2, PP 1694-0814,2012.
[3] B. G. Kodge, “Information Security: A Review on Steganography with Cryptography for Secured Data Transaction”, International Journal of Scientific Research in Network Security and Communication, Volume-5, Issue-6, PP 1-4, 2017.
[4] Sanju, Y. Mamta, “Audio Steganography”, International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 6, PP 66-70, 2018
[5] N. Cvejic and T. Seppnen, “Increasing the capacity of LSB based audio steganography”, In the Proceeding of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing, pp. 336338, 2002.
[6] S. Roy, A.K. Singh, J. Parida and A. S. Sairam, “Audio Steganography Using LSB Encoding Technique with Increased Capacity and Bit Error Rate Optimization”, In the Proceeding of CCSEIT-12, India, 2012.
[7] H. Kumar, Anuradha, “Enhanced LSB technique for Audio Steganography”, In the Proceeding of ICCCNT`12, India, 2012.
[8] A. Mane, G. Galshetwar and A. Jeyakumar, “Data Hiding Technique: Audio Steganography using LSB Technique”, International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications Vol. 2, Issue 3, 2012.
[9] P. P. Balgurgi, S. K. Jagtap, “Audio Steganography Used for Secure Data Transmission,” In Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Computing, pp. 699–706, India, 2012.
[10] K. Geetha, P. V. Muthu, “Implementation of ETAS (embedding text in audio signal) model to ensure secrecy,” International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 1308–1313, 2010.
[11] M. Wakiyama, Y. Hidaka, K. Nozaki, “A Novel Phase Coding Technique for Steganography in Auditive Media”, In Proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, IEEE 2011.
[12] Z. Kexin, “Audio Steganalysis of Spread Spectrum Hiding Based on Statistical Moment”, In Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS-2010), IEEE, vol. 3, pp. 381-384, 2010.
[13] M. Nutzinger, C. Fabian, M. Marschalek, “Secure Hybrid Spread Spectrum System for Steganography in Auditive Media”, In Proceedings of Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing ,IEEE, pp. 78-81,2010.
[14] F. Rezaei, T. Ma, M. Hempel, D. Peng, H. Sharif, “An Anti-Steganographic Approach for Removing Secret Information in Digital Audio Data hidden by Spread Spectrum Methods”, In Proceedings of IEEE Communication and Information Systems Security Symposium , 2013.
[15] F. Djebbar, B. Ayad, H. Hamam, K. Abed-Meraim, “A view on latest audio steganography techniques,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (IIT), pp. 409–414, United Arab Emirates, 2011.
[16] R. Kaur, J. Bhatia, H. S. Saini, R. Kumar, "Multilevel Technique to Improve PSNR and MSE in Audio Steganography" International Journal of Computer Applications , Volume 103, No.5,pp 1-4, 2014.