Multimedia Multilevel Hiding Technique

Both cryptography and steganography are usually used to ensure information safety in today's data communication. This paper makes use of both concepts and presents a multimedia multilevel hiding technique. This technique hides more than one colored encrypted image with encrypted data in a meaningful colored cover image. The hidden secret images with their encrypted data can be extracted using different masks of the same cover image. One could retrieve the hidden information which is customized to their own purposes relative to the mask designed for a particular purpose only. The same mask is used to encrypt both the secret data and the secret image in which data is hidden. This technique increases the level of security as well as the payload.