A Robust Hybrid Cryptosystem based on DNA Steganography

Cryptography is a major concern in the field of computer networks and security of data. By encoding a plain message using cryptographic algorithms, cryptography converts a plain message into an unintelligible format for humans. The advancement in cryptographic algorithm is a fundamental issue for data transmission in today's world. The field of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based cryptography offers the possibility of resolving the issue efficiently. The work presents an innovative technique of data encoding using DNA sequence. In the proposed DNA steganography technique, the data is encoded to facilitate in hiding a secret message on a sequence of DNA strand using its bases, namely, adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) or thymine (T), very easily. This algorithm introduces two rounds of encryption within the DNA sequence. The plain text is converted to ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code, which is a 7-bit character code with each individual bit representing a unique character. The proposed technique has been tested using random user input and found to give an index of coincidence (IC) value of 0.28, approximately.