The Steganographic Approach to Data Protection Using Arnold Algorithm and the Pixel-Value Differencing Method

Steganographic data transformation is an effective means of ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of information resources, so developing the methods for improving the reliability and authenticity of steganographic systems is a promising research area. In the article we propose two approaches for embedding secret information into a BMP image by changing the difference between its pixel values. Both approaches involve the prior use (before embedding additional information) of Arnold's transformation to rearrange the pixels of the image. In the first approach, the Arnold transform is applied to the entire color matrix of the image, in the second - the image matrix is broken into blocks, and then twice do the Arnold transformation: to change the order of the blocks themselves and the sequence of pixels inside blocks. As a result, the pixels with the embedded information will be located in the image chaotically and evenly. The application of developed algorithms does not change the visual image quality, but complicates the fact of hidden information detection.