Digitized data validation using dual color images with improved robustness and error correction facility

The proposed algorithm takes an initiative to justify strong ownership claims by blending visual cryptography with steganography, which is quite different from a conventional approach. The major consideration of the proposed protocol is to implement cryptographic technique in digitized document justifying Confidentiality, Integrity, Authenticity and Non-Repudiation, similar to cryptographic technique implementation in born digital document. In addition, the approach is less complex than a conventional system but without compromising the level of security. For the protection of a sensitive or copyright document, the owner cleans the digitized signature, generate two shares and fabricate one of the shares alongside the encrypted message digest of the signature in the pseudorandom positions of coiflet transformed blocks. Instead of using a single plane as cover, three planes of two color images are utilized to enhance the effect of robustness in hiding. The secret fabrication in frequency domain preserves excellent security as well as imperceptibility of the hidden data. The loss of signal due to white noise is properly adjusted to make the authenticated images resemble close to the original ones as depicted with the histogram and RGB analysis. Moreover, an intended receiver only will be able to verify the confidentiality of the document and the owner through self-defined appropriate techniques. Finally, the worthiness of the algorithm in digitized domain is established through exhaustive experimentation in terms of data hiding imperceptibility, robustness and data recovery aspects.