IMPROVING AUDIO STEGANOGRAPHY USING AES ENCRYPTION AND LSB SUBSTITUTION FOR SECURING MILITARY DATA

In the evolving landscape of military communications, safeguarding sensitive data against interception and unauthorized access remains a paramount challenge. This study reviews and synthesizes existing literature on the integration of audio steganography, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption, and Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution as a multi-layered security approach for military data protection. The primary aim of the research is to explore how these techniques jointly contribute to secure, covert communication by embedding encrypted messages within audio files without compromising perceptual quality. The findings from the literature highlight the effectiveness of AES and LSB-based audio steganography in ensuring high imperceptibility and robustness against steganalysis, albeit with limitations in embedding capacity and computational complexity. This review further outlines key contributions from recent research, examines their methodologies, and evaluates their performance metrics. Based on the insights gathered, the study recommends the adoption of optimized algorithms for real-time deployment, integration of adaptive security mechanisms, and the inclusion of biometric authentication or multifactor verification protocols to enhance overall system resilience. These recommendations aim to strengthen the practical applicability of audio steganography systems in securing critical military communications.