Abstract-Mobile phones technology has become one of the most common and important technologies that started as a communication tool and then evolved into key reservoirs of personal information and smart applications. With this increased level of complications, increased dangers and increased levels of countermeasures and opposing countermeasures have emerged, such as Mobile Forensics and anti-forensics. One of these antiforensics tools is steganography, which introduced higher levels of complexity and security against hackers' attacks but simultaneously create obstacles to forensic investigations.A new anti-forensics approach for embedding data in the steganography field is proposed in this paper. It is based on hiding secret data in hex symbols carrier files rather than the usually used file multimedia carrier including videos, image and sound files. Furthermore, this approach utilizes hexadecimal codes to embed the secret data on the contrary to the conventional steganography approaches which apply changes to binary codes. Accordingly, the resulting data in the carrier files will be unfathomable without the use of special keys yielding a high level of attacking and deciphering difficulty. Besides, embedding the secret data in the form of hex symbols, the agreed upon procedure between communicating parties follows a random embedding manner formulated using WinHex software. Files can be exchanged amongst android devices and/or computers. Experiments were conducted for applying the proposed algorithm on rooted android devices, which also are connected to computers. The proposed methods showed advantages over the currently existing steganography approaches, in terms of character frequency, capacity, security, and robustness.

Abstract-Mobile phones technology has become one of the most common and important technologies that started as a communication tool and then evolved into key reservoirs of personal information and smart applications. With this increased level of complications, increased dangers and increased levels of countermeasures and opposing countermeasures have emerged, such as Mobile Forensics and anti-forensics. One of these antiforensics tools is steganography, which introduced higher levels of complexity and security against hackers' attacks but simultaneously create obstacles to forensic investigations. In this paper we proposed a new data hiding approach, the AES Inspired Steganography (AIS), which utilizes some AES data encryption concepts while hiding the data using the concept of hex symbols steganography. As the approach is based on the use of multiple encryption steps, the resulting carrier files would be unfathomable without the use of the cipher key agreed upon by the communicating parties. These carrier files can be exchanged amongst android devices and/or computers. Assessments of the proposed approach have proven it to be advantageous over the currently existing steganography approaches in terms of character frequency, security, robustness, length of key, and Compatibility.

Abstract-Technology (including mobiles and computers) has become a basic, indispensable need in our daily life. With an initial purpose of achieving basic functions such as communication, technology has evolved into a virtual gate to the whole world connecting individuals through social media and various websites and applications. Most importantly, technology became the reservoir of our personal information and important, sensitive data. This has led to increased risks of security breaches and data thefts demanding countermeasure approaches. One of these approaches is Steganography. Steganography is a data hiding approach that allows for invisible, relatively safe communication. Several forms of steganography have been developed, among which are Image steganography and our previously developed AES Inspired Steganography. In this paper we propose a new variation in which we combine both of these approaches, Image and AES Inspired Steganography (IAIS). This approach proposes hiding the hex symbol format of the encrypted secret data into a carrier image file. The image file is converted to a hexadecimal representation in which the hex symbol could be embedded without applying any noticeable changes to the original image. Deciphering the hidden information requires secret keys agreed upon by the communicating parties confidentially. These carrier files can be exchanged among mobile devices and/or computers. Comparisons between the original cover images and the cover images with the hidden text have shown that no changes occurred in the colour histogram of the images. However, the noise test has shown that exposure to noise can affect the hexadecimal content of the image, hence the embedded hex symbol representation of the secret text.