Innovative C4I Technologies: Secure Handling of Intelligence Data

Mission Research Corporation (MRC) proposes to develop robust, effective, fast, and secure methods for hiding secret information inside digital images. The methods will be particularly useful for secure intelligence data handling, secure transmission of data over public channels, secure archival of information, and data protection. The proposed methods are based on new chaos based image cryptographic techniques developed by the principal investigator. The secret information is first encrypted and then hidden inside a digital image (the carrier) by slightly modifying the carrier. The changes are imperceptible to a human eye, and look like a random thermal noise under high magnification. The purpose of hiding secret information is to make the encrypted data file look like a normal image so that an eavesdropper does not even suspect that secret information is being sent. The methods to be developed in this proposal will be especially useful for hiding large amounts of data, such as images or digitized videotapes. Emphasis will be given to robustness so that hidden information is not corrupted by a small amount of noise or a loss of information caused by using Bossy graphic formats. Other commercial applications include marking of digital signals and image authentication.