Improved LSB Based Image Steganography Using Run Length Encoding and Random Insertion Technique for Color Images

Image Steganography is a technique for securing the secret message using a cover image in such a manner that the alterations made to the image are perceptually indiscernible. In this paper a novel method for secret message hiding in colour images is proposed. The message is encoded by extracting the RGB components of a colour image. Run length encoding is performed on the data and insertion of the data in least significant bits (LSB) of the pixel is guided by linear congruential generator (LCG). A 3R-3G-2B LSB pattern is recommended for insertion of the data making the information more secure without bringing any significant distortions to the original image. The experiments performed on various colour images demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in terms of PSNR of cover image and that of stego-image.