Abstract  Several  problems  arise  among  the  existing  LSB-based   image  steganographic  schemes  due  to  distortion  in a  stego- image  and  limited  payload  capacity.  Thus,  a  propose d  scheme  has  been  developed  with  the  aims  to  help  i n  improving  the  payload of the secret data at the same time retaini ng the quality of the stego-image produced within a n acceptance threshold.  This  study  has  led  to  the  modification  of  the  curre nt  LSB  substitution  algorithm  by  delivering  a  new  a lgorithm  namely  sequential  colour  cycle.  For  achieving  a  higher  sec urity,  multi-layered  steganography  can  be  performed   by  embedding  a  secret data into multiple layers of cover-images. T he performance evaluation has been tested and prove n that the improvement  of  embedding  ratio  at  1:2  for  the  proposed  algorith m  can  be  achieved  and  the  value  of  the  image  qualit y  is  not  falling  below  the threshold of distortion.   

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[33] Por L-Y., Wong K-S., and Chee K-O., UniSpaCh: A Textbased Data Hiding Method Using Unicode Space Characters. Journal of Systems and Software , vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 1075- 1082, 2012. Lip Yee Por is a senior lecturer for the Department of System and Computer Technology in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology at University of Malaya. He received his PhD, BSc and MSc in computer science at University of Malaya, Malaysia. His curr ent research interests include information security, steganography, image processing, graphical authentication, grid computing, and e-learning framework. He is a senior member of IEEE since 2011 . His biography has been included in Marquis Who's Who in the World. Delina Beh received her BSc degree in Information Technology and MSc in Computer Science in 2008 and 2010 at University of Malaya, Malaysia. She is a lecturer in Malaysian Institute of Information Technology, Universiti Kuala Lumpur since 2010. Her research area includes information hiding, cryptography, biometric authentication, mobile security and USB security. Tan Fong Ang obtained his PhD from University of Malaya in 2012. He is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer system and Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He is a Member of IEEE. His research area s include Web Services, cloud computing and game education. Sim Ying Ong received her BSc in computer science in software engineering at University of Malaya, Malaysia. She is currently pursuing her PhD at University of Malaya, Malaysia.