A highly secure DNA based image steganography

DNA steganography is one of the emerging technologies in the field of covert data transmission. In this paper we are proposing a novel DNA based steganography which uses images as primary cover media. A theoretical single stranded DNA (ssDNA) or oligonucleotide is extracted from the image which is used as the secondary cover providing a huge amount of background noise for the secret data. This is why we call it a dual cover steganography. The pixel sequence contributing the ssDNA codon series construction is determined by a two dimensional chaotic map. Performance of the algorithm is tested against several visual and statistical attacks and parameterized in terms of both security and capacity.