218 Copyright © 2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 12 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6583-5.ch012 Data Hiding Schemes Based on Singular Value Decomposition ABSTRACT The security of information exchange is very important on the network. Authentication and information hiding have also become important issues. Information hiding techniques are acquiring an increas- ing importance due to the widespread difusion of multimedia contents. The aim of this chapter is to focus on the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) transform, with the aim of providing an exhaustive overview on those steganography, image cryptography and watermarking techniques leveraging on the important properties of such a transform. Despite the attention it has received in the last years, SVD in image processing and security is still in its infancy. Many SVD characteristics are still unutilized in image processing. In this chapter the author tries to highlight the basic properties of SVD and some of their applications in the feld of security to encourage researchers to discover more about SVD proper- ties which are not yet utilized. INTRODUCTION Due to the rising dependence on digital media and the unexpected expansion of the distribution opportunities over the Internet, techniques for hid- ing information into digital contents are achieving significant importance. Such techniques aim to provide the ability to communicate secretly and the capacity to protect copyrighted multimedia content against illegal distribution. Designing such schemes has become a topic of great importance and many researchers have spent much effort in the last years to obtain an effective solution. However, despite many different approaches have been attempted, there is currently no scheme that can preserve imperceptibility of the hidden data while ensuring a high security against malicious attacks. In networked environments, the safety of multimedia data can be investigated according to two aspects: the safety of static data and the data security during dynamic communication. The safety of static multimedia data can be inspected according to the following four aspects: Nidhal Khdhair El Abbadi University of Kufa, Iraq