Steganalysis method of static JPEG images based on artificial immune system

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to develop the steganalysis method of static JPEG images, based on the usage of artificial immune systems.A model of an artificial immune system was developed for the problem of detecting hidden information in JPEG images. Basic requirements were determined, and basic elements of an artificial immune system were considered, mutation and antibody cloning operations were introduced. Also, formal description of main nodes of the artificial immune system is presented. In addition, a brief overview and analysis of the state of the steganalysis problem is provided in the paper. Furthermore, analysis of the obtained experimental results and an assessment of the effectiveness are performed for the developed method.The proposed method allows to detect the presence of hidden information, embedded by various popular steganography tools (like OutGuess, Steghide and F5) in static JPEG images with a sufficiently high accuracy. The theoretical significance of this work consists in the development of a fairly promising approach of heuristic steganalysis using artificial immune systems. The practical significance lies in the developed software product, as well as in experimental data, that confirms the effectiveness of the steganalysis method towards the detection of hidden information in JPEG images.