Robust and Secured Image Steganography using LSB and Encryption with QR Code

The great development obtained with digital communication system depends on the improvement of the amount and security of transmitting information, the secrecy of data transmitted becomes a main subject for the researcher. Cryptography and Steganography play a major role for secured data transfer. In this research, the cryptography and steganography method was proposed for information security. In cryptography, the encrypted message was obtained by XOR the secret message with QR code. While, in Steganography the encrypted message was embedded inside cover image using LSB technique. The new approach in this research is use of the QR technique as well as the encrypted message was hidden in places selected using the bat algorithm. Secret message with different sizes was tested with many cover imagesto verify the efficiency of the proposed method. In the end, to measure the quality of cover image after the process of embedding, a group of standard parameters has adopted. The results of parameters showed the proposed method hasthe highest security and integrity. Keyword: Steganography, Cryptography, Bat algorithm, QR code.