Sobel Edges Key-Based Method for Steganography in Spatial Domain Images

Safeguarding confidential messages has emerged as a central concern within the domain of network security, prompted by issues related to breaches of network usage policies and unauthorized access to public networks. Various data protection techniques, including cryptography and steganography, have been devised to counter these challenges. Cryptography involves encrypting secret messages into ciphertext, while steganography conceals secret messages within codes embedded in digital files, such as images, audio, and videos. Unlike cryptography, steganography focuses on securely transmitting secret messages over public networks by concealing them. This paper introduces a novel steganographic algorithm that addresses these challenges by leveraging the Sobel algorithm to detect image edges. The algorithm combines identified edges with a secret key. It applies a modulus function to the cover image for data concealment. Experimental results showcase the algorithm's efficacy, revealing a stego image of superior quality with a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 53.18 dB. This marks a substantial enhancement over existing methods, particularly noteworthy considering our approach's accommodation of a sizable payload.