Secure Data Hiding in Images within Selected Zones

Security has become one of the most significant problems in distributing new information. It is necessary to protect this information while communication over insecure networks. Cryptography and Steganography[7][8] are two major techniques for secret communication. This paper presents a high security model by combining cryptography and steganography[7][8] techniques which encrypts the text data and then  hides the encrypted data in the robust regions of the image. It will facilitate secret communication through images without letting the third party get aware of the secret communication. This will take place in the cover media which will be an image. The data to be transmitted will be encrypted using AES[3][6] and whirlpool[9][10], the robust regions in the cover media will be extracted using SURF[1][11][12], the encrypted data will be embedded using LSB[2][13][14] in these obtained regions and then the stego image will be produced. The key for encryption and decryption has to be same. Thus the system is implemented and the data remains hidden from the intruder or eves-dropper.