DNA Steganography: Embedding the Secret Messages Using Glass Stack Method and Detecting Errors Made by Different Attacks

Abstract

Cyber threats pose a significant challenge to protecting cloud-based health data, including DNA sequences and patient information. Steganography is a well-known solution to this problem. Recent studies have limitations, such as not reconstructing the cover or enlarging the original sequence, increasing personal data security risks. In this study, we provide a novel data-hiding technique that uses a secret key, bit padding, and exclusive OR (XOR) operation to insert secrets into a pre-processed DNA sequence. The message encryption and pre-processing of the cover are performed using a new glass stack pattern technique. The message encryption and pre-processing processes using the new glass stack pattern method increase the security and robustness of the system. The method embeds 3 bits per nucleotide which is greater than the existing schemes. It has a relatively small DNA expansion which is 50% and has a low risk of breaking security. The method also preserves the biological properties of DNA sequences. Additionally, a parity check approach further improves security by thwarting attacks like man-in-the-middle, chosen stego, and modification attacks that alter the stego DNA. These advances improve the system's overall security capabilities. The experimental findings demonstrate that the suggested method reconstructs the cover, healthcare data, and DNA sequence properly and error-free, and outperforms competing algorithms on all performance metric dimensions.

Highlights

• The scheme implants a maximum of 3 bits per nucleotide with a small expansion.

• Its cover pre-processing and message encryption using a glass stack pattern makes strong security.

• The scheme can detect and fix changed bits caused by attacks.

• A very low cracking probability shows strong security and robustness.

• The biological properties of the stego DNA sequence are preserved by this scheme.

Keywords:

• Data security
• steganography
• DNA sequence
• secret key
• hiding rate
• glass stack pattern

Acknowledgments

Mahbubun Nahar is a Ph.D. fellow of the Information and Communication Technology division of the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology of the Government of Bangladesh. So, we would like to acknowledge the support of the stated ministry. Mahbubun Nahar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing -- Original draft preparation. A.H.M. Kamal: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing -- Review and Editing.

Data availability

We used data from the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) repository. Additionally, we generated some data that were not uploaded anywhere. However, that could be made available on request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

None of the authors of this article have conducted any experiments using humans or animals.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mahbubun Nahar

Mahbubun Nahar is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. She is doing her PhD at the same department as her working university. Her research areas are bio-informatics, information security, DNA steganography, machine learning, and image processing.

A. H. M. Kamal

A. H. M. Kamal is a Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Bangladesh. He received his Ph.D. from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, which is a top-ranked university in Bangladesh. His research area focuses on image steganography, information security, medical imaging, electronic commerce, and machine learning. He has published a good number of articles in different renowned and impact-factored journals. Currently, two Ph.D. students and a few master's students are working under his supervision.