@article{article_1567237, title={Digital Image as a Cyber Spy: A Gray Coded Secure Model to Transfer the Secret Information}, journal={Politeknik Dergisi}, pages={1–1}, year={2025}, DOI={10.2339/politeknik.1567237}, author={Macit, Hüseyin Bilal}, keywords={Cyber spy, Image steganography, Bit plane slicing, Steganalysis}, abstract={The widespread use of the Internet and the ability of data transfer between different types of devices have caused intense multimedia traffic today. More than a hundred thousand image files are transferred per second on Meta group social media platforms alone. In particular, multimedia objects that directly target human perception such as images, audio, and video can be used as cyber spies on the network. Steganography methods are generally used for this. This study proposes an alternative digital image steganography method. The proposed method works in both the frequency domain and bit plane slicing methods, which is unusual. Gray coding is applied to the secret data to obtain minimum entropy. The results of the method are presented with surface graphics and tables by performing many iterations on different gray code lengths and different bit planes. Steganalysis tests have been performed for the applicability of the method in the real world and the results are shown. The method has been compared with some methods in the literature in terms of imperceptibility, robustness, and data load. Despite the high data load, higher scores were obtained than similar methods in structural and perceptual mathematical tests.}, publisher={Gazi University}