Proposed cancelable biometrics system based on hybrid optical crypto-steganography audio framework for cyber security applications

Biometric authentication systems have gained significant popularity in recent years due to their high level of security and convenience. Cancelable biometrics is a promising area of research that addresses the privacy and security concerns associated with traditional biometric systems. By transforming the biometric data in a non-invertible manner, cancelable biometrics offer enhanced privacy protection, increased security, and the flexibility to revoke or update biometric templates. As research in this field continues to advance, cancelable biometrics has the potential to revolutionize the way biometric systems are implemented and utilized. Ten years ago, there is a dire need to develop new cancelable biometric systems depending on cryptography or steganography system which may merging the two previous techniques to hide secret information within a cover medium. It involves encrypting the message and then embedding it into an innocent-looking file, such as an image or audio file. The goal is to make the hidden message undetectable to anyone who is not the intended recipient. This method ensures that even if the cover medium is intercepted, the secret information remains secure. Crypto-steganography is a powerful tool for covert communication and has applications in various fields, including intelligence agencies, cyber-security, and digital multimedia applications. In a classical cryptography system, users can easily change their password if they are compromised. However, user's biometrics is limited and unique, and if they are compromised, it will be impossible to change them as it in cryptography system. So, the basic concept of cancelable biometrics is to use another version of the original biometric template created through a one-way transform or a crypto-steganography scheme to keep the original biometrics safe and away from utilization in the system. Cancelable biometrics depends on the transformation of data so that users can replace their single biometric template in the same or different system. In this paper, a biometric system is presented as a novel hybrid optical crypto-steganography algorithm which is used to achieve cancelability option over audios signal. A proposal hybrid crypto-steganography technique based on the optical Double Random Phase Encoding (DRPE) algorithm which is suggested to attain simultaneous encryption of multi-audios, begins with encrypting the biometric audios using the optical DRPE algorithm, then the resulting encrypted biometric audios are further encrypted again with the chaotic Baker map as a permutation strategy, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and Ron's Code (RC6) as a diffusion strategy. Then, the resulting encrypted biometrics is embedded into the cover media with a steganography technique which is based on a chaotic concept. Finally, the quality evaluation of the proposed cancelable biometrics system reveals good performance. The simulation results prove that the suggested hybrid optical crypto-steganography framework is reliable and presents recommended security and robustness levels for its utilization in achieving efficient cancelable biometrics systems compared to traditional techniques.