Abstract—In this modern era, the size of image data grows significantly due to increasing data needs. However, as the data flows become faster, data security concerns should receive more attention. This paper proposes a Crypto-Stego technique to enhance image data security and reduce data size using compression technique. The size of image data is reduced using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) compression. Then, the compressed secret image will be encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard using Cipher Block Chaining (AES-CBC). Lastly, the Least Significant Bit technique is used to embed the
encrypted secret image inside the cover image. The results are illustrated by numerous testing simulation achieving an average score 37.9dB in the PSNR metric and 0.96 in SSIM metric.

Keywords—Compression, Encryption, Crypto-stego, Steganography, Image steganography, PSNR