A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security
Abstract In the digital era, ensuring data integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality is critical amid growing interconnectivity and evolving security threats. This paper addresses key limitations of traditional steganographic methods, such as limited payload capacity, susceptibility to detection,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89189-5 |
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| author | Yousef Sanjalawe Salam Al-E’mari Salam Fraihat Mosleh Abualhaj Emran Alzubi |
| author_facet | Yousef Sanjalawe Salam Al-E’mari Salam Fraihat Mosleh Abualhaj Emran Alzubi |
| author_sort | Yousef Sanjalawe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract In the digital era, ensuring data integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality is critical amid growing interconnectivity and evolving security threats. This paper addresses key limitations of traditional steganographic methods, such as limited payload capacity, susceptibility to detection, and lack of robustness against attacks. A novel multi-layered steganographic framework is proposed, integrating Huffman coding, Least Significant Bit (LSB) embedding, and a deep learning-based encoder–decoder to enhance imperceptibility, robustness, and security. Huffman coding compresses data and obfuscates statistical patterns, enabling efficient embedding within cover images. At the same time, the deep learning encoder adds layer of protection by concealing an image within another. Extensive evaluations using benchmark datasets, including Tiny ImageNet, COCO, and CelebA, demonstrate the approach’s superior performance. Key contributions include achieving high visual fidelity with Structural Similarity Index Metrics (SSIM) consistently above 99%, robust data recovery with text recovery accuracy reaching 100% under standard conditions, and enhanced resistance to common attacks such as noise and compression. The proposed framework significantly improves robustness, security, and computational efficiency compared to traditional methods. By balancing imperceptibility and resilience, this paper advances secure communication and digital rights management, addressing modern challenges in data hiding through an innovative combination of compression, adaptive embedding, and deep learning techniques. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-82c4978600134adea3749c94fe2982a5 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-82c4978600134adea3749c94fe2982a52025-02-09T12:33:37ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-02-0115113010.1038/s41598-025-89189-5A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data securityYousef Sanjalawe0Salam Al-E’mari1Salam Fraihat2Mosleh Abualhaj3Emran Alzubi4Department of Information Technology, King Abdullah II School for Information Technology, University of Jordan (JU)Department of Information Security, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Petra (UoP)Artificial Intelligence Research Center (AIRC), College of Engineering and Information Technology, Ajman UniversityDepartment of Networks and Information Security, Faculty of Information Technology, Al-Ahliyya Amman UniversityCollege of Business Administration, Northern Border University (NBU)Abstract In the digital era, ensuring data integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality is critical amid growing interconnectivity and evolving security threats. This paper addresses key limitations of traditional steganographic methods, such as limited payload capacity, susceptibility to detection, and lack of robustness against attacks. A novel multi-layered steganographic framework is proposed, integrating Huffman coding, Least Significant Bit (LSB) embedding, and a deep learning-based encoder–decoder to enhance imperceptibility, robustness, and security. Huffman coding compresses data and obfuscates statistical patterns, enabling efficient embedding within cover images. At the same time, the deep learning encoder adds layer of protection by concealing an image within another. Extensive evaluations using benchmark datasets, including Tiny ImageNet, COCO, and CelebA, demonstrate the approach’s superior performance. Key contributions include achieving high visual fidelity with Structural Similarity Index Metrics (SSIM) consistently above 99%, robust data recovery with text recovery accuracy reaching 100% under standard conditions, and enhanced resistance to common attacks such as noise and compression. The proposed framework significantly improves robustness, security, and computational efficiency compared to traditional methods. By balancing imperceptibility and resilience, this paper advances secure communication and digital rights management, addressing modern challenges in data hiding through an innovative combination of compression, adaptive embedding, and deep learning techniques.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89189-5Data securityHuffman encodingImage embeddingSteganographyLSB embedding |
| spellingShingle | Yousef Sanjalawe Salam Al-E’mari Salam Fraihat Mosleh Abualhaj Emran Alzubi A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security Scientific Reports Data security Huffman encoding Image embedding Steganography LSB embedding |
| title | A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| title_full | A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| title_fullStr | A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| title_full_unstemmed | A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| title_short | A deep learning-driven multi-layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| title_sort | deep learning driven multi layered steganographic approach for enhanced data security |
| topic | Data security Huffman encoding Image embedding Steganography LSB embedding |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-89189-5 |
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