Implementation of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) Steganography Method for Embedding Secret Messages in Image Media

Abstract

Steganography is an information security technique that aims to hide secret messages within a storage medium so that their existence is not easily detected. Digital images are widely used as a medium for steganography because they have large storage capacity and good tolerance to pixel value changes. This study aims to implement and analyze a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-based steganography method for embedding secret messages in digital images by utilizing the frequency domain. The methods used include transforming images from the spatial domain to the frequency domain using DFT, embedding secret messages in binary form in selected frequency coefficients, and performing inverse transformation using Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) to produce stego images. The extraction process is carried out by reading back the modified frequency coefficients. Evaluation is performed by comparing the visual quality of the original image and the stego image and testing the success of message extraction. Steganography is an information security technique. The results of the study show that the DFT-based steganography method is capable of producing stego images with visual quality that is very similar to the original image, making the secret message difficult to detect visually. However, there are still small differences in the message extraction results due to the rounding effect in the IDFT process. Overall, the DFT method is considered effective for hiding secret messages in digital images, but further development is needed to improve message extraction accuracy.