Deep Image Steganography Using Transformer and Recursive Permutation

Image steganography, which usually hides a small image (hidden image or secret image) in a large image (carrier) so that the crackers cannot feel the existence of the hidden image in the carrier, has become a hot topic in the community of image security. Recent deep-learning techniques have promoted image steganography to a new stage. To improve the performance of steganography, this paper proposes a novel scheme that uses the Transformer for feature extraction in steganography. In addition, an image encryption algorithm using recursive permutation is proposed to further enhance the security of secret images. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. We reveal that the Transformer is superior to the compared state-of-the-art deep-learning models in feature extraction for steganography. In addition, the proposed image encryption algorithm has good attributes for image security, which further enhances the performance of the proposed scheme of steganography.     

Quantum Steganography via Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger GHZ_4 State

A quantum steganography communication scheme via Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger GHZ 4 state is constructed to investigate the possibility of remotely transferred hidden information.Moreover,the multipartite entangled states are become a hectic topic due to its important applications and deep effects on aspects of quantum information.Then,the scheme consists of sharing the correlation of four particle GHZ4 states between the legitimate users.After insuring the security of the quantum channel,they begin to hide the secret information in the cover of message.Comparing the scheme with the previous quantum steganographies,capacity and imperceptibility of hidden message are good.The security of the present scheme against many attacks is also discussed.     

Quantum steganography with large payload based on entanglement swapping of χ-type entangled states

In this paper, we firstly propose a new simple method to calculate entanglement swapping of χ-type entangled states, and then present a novel quantum steganography protocol with large payload. The new protocol adopts entanglement swapping to build up the hidden channel within quantum secure direct communication with χ-type entangled states for securely transmitting secret messages. Comparing with the previous quantum steganographies, the capacity of the hidden channel is much higher, which is increased to eight bits. Meanwhile, due to the quantum uncertainty theorem and the no-cloning theorem its imperceptibility is proved to be great in the analysis, and its security is also analyzed in detail, which is proved that intercept-resend attack, measurement-resend attack, ancilla attack, man-in-the-middle attack or even Dos(Denial of Service) attack couldn't threaten it. As a result, the protocol can be applied in various fields of quantum communication.     

Large payload quantum steganography based on cavity quantum electrodynamics

A large payload quantum steganography protocol based on cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) is presented in this paper, which effectively uses the evolutionary law of atoms in cavity QED. The protocol builds up a hidden channel to transmit secret messages using entanglement swapping between one GHZ state and one Bell state in cavity QED together with the Hadamard operation. The quantum steganography protocol is insensitive to cavity decay and the thermal field. The capacity, imperceptibility and security against eavesdropping are analyzed in detail in the protocol. It turns out that the protocol not only has good imperceptibility but also possesses good security against eavesdropping. In addition, its capacity for a hidden channel achieves five bits, larger than most of the previous quantum steganography protocols.     

基于DCT系数大小关系的自适应JPEG隐写

JPEG图像是最流行的隐写载体之一,但隐写分析的最新进展表明,如何设计安全的JPEG隐写算法仍是一个困难的问题.本文提出了一种新的JPEG自适应隐写方法.自适应隐写难点在于设计失真函数合理反应修改量化DCT系数造成的嵌入失真.由于量化DCT系数绝对值的大小能够反应JPEG图像主要统计特性,本文根据DCT系数大小关系设计失真函数,结合STC（Syndrome Trellis Codes）编码,分别给出了使用nsF5修改方式的单层嵌入方法以及使用加减一修改方式的双层嵌入方法.实验表明,本文单层嵌入方法比nsF5安全性高,双层嵌入方法比nsF5以及Filler’s Method抵抗多种检测的能力更强.     

An Enhanced Steganography Network for Concealing and Protecting Secret Image Data

The development of Internet technology has provided great convenience for data transmission and sharing, but it also brings serious security problems that are related to data protection. As is detailed in this paper, an enhanced steganography network was designed to protect secret image data that contains private or confidential information; this network consists of a concealing network and a revealing network in order to achieve image embedding and recovery separately. To reduce the system’s computation complexity, we constructed the network’s framework using a down–up structure in order to compress the intermediate feature maps. In order to mitigate the input’s information loss caused by a sequence of convolution blocks, the long skip concatenation method was designed to pass the raw information to the top layer, thus synthesizing high-quality hidden images with fine texture details. In addition, we propose a novel strategy called non-activated feature fusion (NAFF), which is designed to provide stronger supervision for synthetizing higher-quality hidden images and recovered images. In order to further boost the hidden image’s visual quality and enhance its imperceptibility, an attention mechanism-based enhanced module was designed to reconstruct and enhance the salient target, thus covering up and obscuring the embedded secret content. Furthermore, a hybrid loss function that is composed of pixel domain loss and structure domain loss was designed to boost the hidden image’s structural quality and visual security. Our experimental results demonstrate that, due to the elaborate design of the network structure and loss function, our proposed method achieves high levels of imperceptibility and security.     

Steganalysis and improvement of a quantum steganography protocol via GHZ4 state

Quantum steganography that utilizes quantum mechanical effect to achieve the purpose of information hiding is a popular topic of quantum information. Recently, El Allati et al. proposed a new quantum steganography using GHZ₄ state. Since all of the 8 groups of unitary transformations used in the secret message encoding rule change the GHZ₄ state into 6 instead of 8 different quantum states when the global phase is not considered, we point out that a 2-bit instead of a 3-bit secret message can be encoded by one group of the given unitary transformations. To encode a 3-bit secret message by performing a group of unitary transformations on the GHZ₄ state, we give another 8 groups of unitary transformations that can change the GHZ₄ state into 8 different quantum states. Due to the symmetry of the GHZ₄ state, all the possible 16 groups of unitary transformations change the GHZ₄ state into 8 different quantum states, so the improved protocol achieves a high efficiency.     

针对LSB匹配隐写的评价策略与改进方法

以Mielikainen提出的LSB匹配算法为基础,通过分析秘密信息对与载体像素对之间的不同匹配顺序对隐写算法性能的影响,提出了一个三级得分评价策略.根据此评价策略的指导,采用粒子群优化算法寻找出最优的信息对嵌入顺序,并在此基础上对Mielikainen的方法进行改进,提出了一种新的隐写算法.实验结果表明,在嵌入相同大小秘密信息的条件下,提出的算法减少了载体图像中灰度值发生变化的像素点数,从而有效提高了隐秘图像的视觉感知质量.     

Quantum steganography with a large payload based on dense coding and entanglement swapping of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states

A quantum steganography protocol with a large payload is proposed based on the dense coding and the entanglement swapping of the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. Its super quantum channel is formed by building up a hidden channel within the original quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) scheme. Based on the original QSDC, secret messages are transmitted by integrating the dense coding and the entanglement swapping of the GHZ states. The capacity of the super quantum channel achieves six bits per round covert communication, much higher than the previous quantum steganography protocols. Its imperceptibility is good, since the information and the secret messages can be regarded to be random or pseudo-random. Moreover, its security is proved to be reliable.