Empirical Study of Image Steganography algorithm for secure communication

In today’s digital era, secure communication is a critical challenge due to the increas- ing risks of data interception and unauthorized access. Traditional encryption meth- ods, while effective in protecting the content, do not conceal the existence of the communication itself, making encrypted data easily identifiable and potentially vul- nerable. This presents a need for techniques that not only secure the data but also hide the fact that communication is occurring. To address this problem, this research proposes a secure communication system using image steganography in combination with encryption techniques. The system consists of four core modules: Encryption, Hide, Seek, and Decryption. In the encryption phase, the plaintext message is first en- crypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) followed by an additional custom key-based encryption layer, providing enhanced security. The resulting cipher text is then embedded into a digital image using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganogra- phy technique, which subtly modifies image pixel values without altering its appearance. The Seek module is used to extract the hidden message, which is then decrypted using the reverse of the encryption process in the Decryption module. The system is implemented in Java, following the Iterative Waterfall Software Development Model. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the system in securely hiding and retrieving messages while maintaining the quality and integrity of the image. Testing further demonstrates the robustness of the dual encryption strategy, validating the system's potential for secure, private, and undetectable communication.