Secure and Robust Digital Watermarking： A Survey

A digital watermarking technique is a multi-scientific discipline which is developed rapidly in last several years for digital content protection,such as copyright protection,authentication protection,source tracing,etc. However,in realistic scenarios,the digital watermarking system faces significant secure issues,for example,the attackers want to remove,detect,or embed illegal watermark signals. Therefore,the aim of this contribution is to illustrate recent results of robust and secure watermarking to the signal processing community,and highlight both benefits and still open issues. Specifically,this paper is intended to introduce the concept of secure and robust digital watermarking system,and provide with problems and their countermeasures. First of all,the classic watermark model and cryptosystem will be reviewed and then,the concept of secure and robust digital watermarking system will be described. Next,the watermark attack will be classified and described. Finally,some countermeasures that can help to improve secure and robustness are considered. Index TermsCountermeasures,digital watermarking system,robust,security,watermark attacks.

Digital Watermarking Scheme for Securing Textual Database Using Histogram Shifting Model

Information security is one of the most important methods of protecting the confidentiality and privacy of internet users.The greater the volume of data,the more the need to increase the security methods for protecting data from intruders.This task can be challenging for researchers in terms of managing enormous data and maintaining their safety and effectiveness.Protection of digital content is a major issue in maintaining the privacy and secrecy of data.Toward this end,digital watermarking is based on the concept of information security through the insertion and detection of an embedded watermark in an efficient manner.Recent methodologies in the research on digital watermarking result in data distortion after embedding the watermark.This scenario can reduce the efficiency of detecting watermarks as well as violate data confidentiality.This study adapts a robust reversible histogram shifting(HS)technique for textual data in relational databases.Furthermore,the study presents a digital watermarking scheme intended for document copyright protection and proof of ownership.The major advantage of the proposed watermarking scheme is that it can protect digital data and preserve data quality.To the best of our knowledge,this research methodology is promising for use in the HS expansion model for watermarking data on nonnumeric databases.In addition,the results showed that despite exposing the database to an insertion attacks at 50%and 75%of the watermark,the proposed algorithm can recovermore than half of the embedded watermark in all addition and alteration attacks cases.As a result,the watermark information can be retained and restored completely.

A Robust Digital Watermarking Algorithm Based on Finite-Set Discrete Radon Transform Tight Frame

Digital watermarking technology plays a powerful role in the effective protection of digital media copyright, image authentication, image sharing, image information transmission and other fields. Driven by strong demand, digital image watermarking technology has aroused widespread research interest and has gradually developed into one of the most active research directions in information science. In this paper, we present a novel robust digital watermarking algorithm based on discrete radon transform tight frame in finite-set (FDRT). FDRT of the zero mean image is a tight frame, the frame boundary A = B = 1, the dual of the frame is itself. The decomposition and reconstruction of the FDRT tight frame will not cause the phenomenon of image distortion. The embedding of hidden watermark is to add a weak signal to the strong background of the original image. Watermark extraction is to effectively identify the embedded weak signal. The feasibility of the watermarking algorithm is analyzed from two aspects of information hiding and robustness. We select the independent Gaussian random vector as the watermark series, and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) as the visual degradation criterion of the watermark image. Basing the FDRT compact stand dual operator, we derived the relationship among the strength parameter, square sum of watermark series, the PSNR. Using Checkmark system, the simulation results show that the algorithm is robust enough to some very important image processing attacks such as lossy compression, MAP, filtering, segmentation, edge enhancement, jitter, quadratic modulation and general geometric attack (scaling, rotation, shearing), etc.

Wavelet-based gray-level digital image watermarking

The watermarking technique has been proposed as a method by hiding secret information into the image to protect the copyright of multimedia data. But most previous work focuses on the algorithms of embedding one dimensional watermarks or two dimensional binary digital watermarks. In this paper, a wavelet based method for embedding a gray level digital watermark into an image is proposed. By still image decomposition technique, a gray level digital watermark is decompounded into a series of bitplanes. By discrete wavelet transform ( DWT ), the host image is decomposed into multiresolution representations with hierarchical structure. The different bitplanes of the gray level watermark is embedded into the corresponding resolution of the decomposed host image. The experimental results show that the proposed techniques can successfully survive image processing operations and the lossy compression techniques such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG).

New Fragile Watermarking Technique to Identify Inserted Video Objects Using H.264 and Color Features

The transmission of video content over a network raises various issues relating to copyright authenticity,ethics,legality,and privacy.The protection of copyrighted video content is a significant issue in the video industry,and it is essential to find effective solutions to prevent tampering and modification of digital video content during its transmission through digital media.However,there are stillmany unresolved challenges.This paper aims to address those challenges by proposing a new technique for detectingmoving objects in digital videos,which can help prove the credibility of video content by detecting any fake objects inserted by hackers.The proposed technique involves using two methods,the H.264 and the extraction color features methods,to embed and extract watermarks in video frames.The study tested the performance of the system against various attacks and found it to be robust.The evaluation was done using different metrics such as Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR),Mean Squared Error(MSE),Structural Similarity Index Measure(SSIM),Bit Correction Ratio(BCR),and Normalized Correlation.The accuracy of identifying moving objects was high,ranging from 96.3%to 98.7%.The system was also able to embed a fragile watermark with a success rate of over 93.65%and had an average capacity of hiding of 78.67.The reconstructed video frames had high quality with a PSNR of at least 65.45 dB and SSIMof over 0.97,making them imperceptible to the human eye.The system also had an acceptable average time difference(T=1.227/s)compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

A New Image Watermarking Scheme Using Genetic Algorithm and Residual Numbers with Discrete Wavelet Transform

Transmission of data over the internet has become a critical issue as a result of the advancement in technology, since it is possible for pirates to steal the intellectual property of content owners. This paper presents a new digital watermarking scheme that combines some operators of the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Residue Number (RN) System (RNS) to perform encryption on an image, which is embedded into a cover image for the purposes of watermarking. Thus, an image watermarking scheme uses an encrypted image. The secret image is embedded in decomposed frames of the cover image achieved by applying a three-level Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). This is to ensure that the secret information is not exposed even when there is a successful attack on the cover information. Content creators can prove ownership of the multimedia content by unveiling the secret information in a court of law. The proposed scheme was tested with sample data using MATLAB2022 and the results of the simulation show a great deal of imperceptibility and robustness as compared to similar existing schemes.

Efficient gray-level digital image watermarking based on vector quantization

Digital watermarking has been presented as a new method for copyright protection by embedding a secret signal in a digital image or video sequence. Common digital image watermarking techniques are based on the concept of spread spectrum communications, which can be classified in two catalogues: spatial domain and transform domain based. Most of transform domain watermarking methods are based on discrete cosine transforms (DCT) and robust to JPEG lossy compression. Recently, digital image watermarking based on another important lossy compression technique, vector quantization (VQ), has been presented, which carries watermark information by codeword indices. It is secret and efficient, and is robust to VQ compression with the same codebook. However, the embedded information is less and the extraction process requires the original image. This paper presents a more efficient VQ based image watermarking method, which can embed a large gray level watermark into the original image with less extra distortion and perform the watermark extraction without the original image. In addition, the proposed watermarking algorithm is very secret because two keys are required for watermark extraction. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

Robust Audio Blind Watermarking Algorithm Based on Haar Transform

To solve the problem of low capacity of audio watermarking information and poor robustness of impact resistance,a digital audio watermark algorithm based on wavelet transform is presented in this paper. In this algorithm,the fine and approximate components are obtained when the Haar wavelet base is used to convert each frame of the audio signal to its discrete transform. Then the HAS algorithm is applied to the fine component embedded with watermark to realize encryption process. The original audio carrier signal is not needed in extraction,as long as the signal is embedded after the frame is divided. The first two sections of each frame are implemented in Haar transform respectively to get the fine and approximate component. The watermark images are obtained from the former two fine components of the energy watermark sequence after calculating,comparing and extracting. The simulation results show that there is a certain transparency for the algorithm,a good robustness against the resampling and low pass filtering attack.

Image-Moment Based Affine Invariant Watermarking Scheme Utilizing Neural Networks

A new image watermarking scheme is proposed to resist rotation, scaling and translation (RST) attacks. Six combined low order image moments are utilized to represent image information on rotation, scaling and translation. Affine transform parameters are registered by feedforward neural networks. Watermark is adaptively embedded in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain while watermark extraction is carried out without original image after attacked watermarked image has been synchronized by making inverse transform through parameters learned by neural networks. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can effectively register affine transform parameters, embed watermark more robustly and resist geometric attacks as well as JPEG2000 compression.

A Robust Watermarking Scheme Based on ROI and IWT for Remote Consultation of COVID-19

In the current dire situation of the corona virus COVID-19,remote consultations were proposed to avoid cross-infection and regional differences in medical resources.However,the safety of digital medical imaging in remote consultations has also attracted more and more attention from the medical industry.To ensure the integrity and security of medical images,this paper proposes a robust watermarking algorithm to authenticate and recover from the distorted medical images based on regions of interest(ROI)and integer wavelet transform(IWT).First,the medical image is divided into two different parts,regions of interest and non-interest regions.Then the integrity of ROI is verified using the hash algorithm,and the recovery data of the ROI region is calculated at the same time.Also,binary images with the basic information of patients are processed by logistic chaotic map encryption,and then the synthetic watermark is embedded in the medical carrier image using IWT transform.The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested by the simulation experiments based on the MATLAB program in CT images of the lungs.Experimental results show that the algorithm can precisely locate the distorted areas of an image and recover the original ROI on the basis of verifying image reliability.The maximum peak signal to noise ratio(PSNR)value of 51.24 has been achieved,which proves that the watermark is invisible and has strong robustness against noise,compression,and filtering attacks.

High Efficiency Crypto-Watermarking System Based on Clifford-Multiwavelet for 3D Meshes Security

Since 3D mesh security has become intellectual property,3D watermarking algorithms have continued to appear to secure 3D meshes shared by remote users and saved in distant multimedia databases.The novelty of our approach is that it uses a new Clifford-multiwavelet transform to insert copyright data in a multiresolution domain,allowing us to greatly expand the size of the watermark.After that,our method does two rounds of insertion,each applying a different type of Clifford-wavelet transform.Before being placed into the Clifford-multiwavelet coefficients,the watermark,which is a mixture of the mesh description,source mesh signature(produced using SHA512),and a logo encrypted using the RSA(Ronald Shamir Adleman)technique,is encoded using Turbo-code.Using the Least Significant Bit method steps,data embedding involves modulation and insertion processes.Finally,the watermarked mesh is reconstructed using the inverse Cliffordmultiwavelet transform.Due to the utilization of a hybrid insertion domain,our technique has demonstrated a very high insertion rate while retaining mesh quality.The mesh is watermarked,and the extracted data is acquired in real-time.Our approach is also resistant to the most common types of attacks.Our findings reveal that the current approach improves on previous efforts.

Novel attribute-based framework for halftone watermarking

A novel attribute-based framework is proposed to tackle the problem of halftone watermarking in combination of the spatial/transformation domain.The challenge is that the host image is continuous,while the watermarked halftone is bi-level.To search for a solution,an attribute image is defined as a good connection between the original grayscale image and its halftone image.When the attribute image is used as a watermark carrier,it helps to find the watermarked halftone efficiently by solving a constrained modified direct binary search problem.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme in comparison with other similar methods maintains high watermark capacity with good image quality,high robustness,processing efficiency and easy decoding.Especially it has a good performance in printing application.

Local Features-Based Watermarking for Image Security in Social Media

The last decade shows an explosion of using social media,which raises several challenges related to the security of personal files including images.These challenges include modifying,illegal copying,identity fraud,copyright protection and ownership of images.Traditional digital watermarking techniques embed digital information inside another digital information without affecting the visual quality for security purposes.In this paper,we propose a hybrid digital watermarking and image processing approach to improve the image security level.Specifically,variants of the widely used Least-Significant Bit(LSB)watermarking technique are merged with a blob detection algorithm to embed information into the boundary pixels of the largest blob of a digital image.The proposed algorithms are tested using several experiments and techniques,which are followed by uploading the watermarked images into a social media site to evaluate the probability of extracting the embedding watermarks.The results show that the proposed approaches outperform the traditional LSB algorithm in terms of time,evaluation criteria and the percentage of pixels that have changed.

STUDY ON SEMANTIC-BASED VIDEO WATERMARKING METHOD

A new video watermarking method for the Audio Video coding Standard (AVS) is proposed. According to human visual masking properties, this method determines the region of interest for watermark embedding by analyzing video semantics, and generates dynamic robust watermark according to video motion semantics, and embeds watermarks in the Intermediate Frequency (IF) Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients of the luminance sub-block prediction residual in the region of interest. This method controls watermark embedding strength adaptively by video textures semantics. Ex- periments show that this method is robust not only to various conventional attacks, but also to re-frame, frame cropping, frame deletion and other video-specific attacks.

WATERMARKING WITH REFINED PERCEPTUAL MASKING TUNED FOR SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR IMAGES

A watermarking scheme designed for remote sensing images needs to meet the same demand of both invisibility as for ordinary digital images. Due to specific perceptual characteristics of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) images, the watermarking algorithms with consideration of Human Vision System(HVS) modeling from optical images give poor performance when applied on SAR images. This paper examines a variety of factors affecting the noise sensitivity, and further proposes a refined pixel-wise masking approach for watermarking on SAR images. The proposed approach is applied on logarithmic transformed SAR images, and has increased the acceptable watermark embedding strength by about 6 dB to 10 dB while achieving the same levels of watermarked image visual quality. Experimental results show that this approach enhanced the perceptual invisibility of watermarking based on wavelet decomposition.

Multiresolution Video Watermarking Algorithm Exploiting the Block-Based Motion Estimation

This paper presents a novel technique for embedding a digital watermark into video frames based on motion vectors and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). In the proposed scheme, the binary image watermark is divided into blocks and each watermark block is embedded several times in each selected video frame at different locations. The block-based motion estimation algorithm is used to select the video frame blocks having the greatest motion vectors magnitude. The DWT is applied to the selected frame blocks, and then, the watermark block is hidden into these blocks by modifying the coefficients of the Horizontal sub-bands (HL). Adding the watermark at different locations in the same video frame makes the scheme more robust against different types of attacks. The method was tested on different types of videos. The average peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and the normalized correlation (NC) are used to measure the performance of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm does not affect the visual quality of video frames and the scheme is robust against a variety of attacks.

A Multi-Stage Security Solution for Medical Color Images in Healthcare Applications

This paper presents a robust multi-stage security solution based on fusion,encryption,and watermarking processes to transmit color healthcare images,efficiently.The presented solution depends on the features of discrete cosine transform(DCT),lifting wavelet transform(LWT),and singular value decomposition(SVD).The primary objective of this proposed solution is to ensure robustness for the color medical watermarked images against transmission attacks.During watermark embedding,the host color medical image is transformed into four sub-bands by employing three stages of LWT.The resulting low-frequency sub-band is then transformed by employing three stages of DCT followed by SVD operation.Furthermore,a fusion process is used for combining different watermarks into a single watermark image.This single fused image is then ciphered using Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid(DNA)encryption to strengthen the security.Then,the DNA-ciphered fused watermark is embedded in the host medical image by applying the suggested watermarking technique to obtain the watermarked image.The main contribution of this work is embedding multiple watermarks to prevent identity theft.In the presence of different multimedia attacks,several simulation tests on different colormedical images have been performed.The results prove that the proposed security solution achieves a decent imperceptibility quality with high Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR)values and high correlation between the extracted and original watermark images.Moreover,the watermark image extraction process succeeds in achieving high efficiency in the presence of attacks compared with related works.

Efficient Secure Data Provenance Scheme in Multimedia Outsourcing and Sharing

To cope with privacy leakage caused by multimedia outsourcing and sharing,data provenance is used to analyze leaked multimedia and provide reactive accountability.Existing schemes of multimedia provenance are based on watermarking protocols.In an outsourcing scenario,existing schemes face two severe challenges:1)when data leakage occurs,there exists a probability that data provenance results can be repudiated,in which case data provenance tracking fails;and 2)when outsourced data are shared,data encryption transfer causes key management burden outside the schemes,and privacy leakage threatens users.In this paper,we propose a novel data provenance scheme with an improved LUT-based fingerprinting protocol,which integrates an asymmetric watermarking protocol,robust watermark algorithm and homomorphic encryption and digital signatures to achieve full non-repudiation provenance.We build an in-scheme stream cipher to protect outsourced multimedia data from privacy leakage and complicated key management.Our scheme is also lightweight and easy to deploy.Extensive security and performance analysis compares our scheme with the state of the art.The results show that our scheme has not only better provenance security and data confidentiality but also higher efficiency for multimedia outsourcing,sharing and provenance.

A Triple-Channel Encrypted Hybrid Fusion Technique to Improve Security of Medical Images

Assuring medical images protection and robustness is a compulsory necessity nowadays.In this paper,a novel technique is proposed that fuses the wavelet-induced multi-resolution decomposition of the Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT)with the energy compaction of the Discrete Wavelet Transform(DCT).The multi-level Encryption-based Hybrid Fusion Technique(EbhFT)aims to achieve great advances in terms of imperceptibility and security of medical images.A DWT disintegrated sub-band of a cover image is reformed simultaneously using the DCT transform.Afterwards,a 64-bit hex key is employed to encrypt the host image as well as participate in the second key creation process to encode the watermark.Lastly,a PN-sequence key is formed along with a supplementary key in the third layer of the EbHFT.Thus,the watermarked image is generated by enclosing both keys into DWT and DCT coefficients.The fusions ability of the proposed EbHFT technique makes the best use of the distinct privileges of using both DWT and DCT methods.In order to validate the proposed technique,a standard dataset of medical images is used.Simulation results show higher performance of the visual quality(i.e.,57.65)for the watermarked forms of all types of medical images.In addition,EbHFT robustness outperforms an existing scheme tested for the same dataset in terms of Normalized Correlation(NC).Finally,extra protection for digital images from against illegal replicating and unapproved tampering using the proposed technique.

Assessment of distortion in watermarked geospatial vector data using different wavelets

With the rapid growth of the Internet,the copyright protection problem occurs frequently,and unauthorized copying and distributing of geospatial data threaten the investments of data producers.Digital watermarking is a possible solution to solve this issue.However,watermarking causes modifications in the original data resulting in distortion and affects accuracy,which is very important to geospatial vector data.This article provides distortion assessment of watermarked geospatial data using wavelet-based invisible watermarking.Eight wavelets at different wavelet decomposition levels are used for accuracy evaluation with the help of error measures such as maximum error and mean square error.Normalized correlation is used as a similarity index between original and extracted watermark.It is observed that the increase in the strength of embedding increases visual degradation.Haar wavelet outperforms the other wavelets,and the third wavelet decomposition level is proved to be optimal level for watermarking.