The concept of a two-dimensional associative masking mechanism, introduced earlier and necessary for further consideration, is used to protect the data of cartographic scenes represented by point, linear and areal objects. The masking mechanism is the basis of associative steganography. In this case, the objects and coordinates of the scene are represented by code words in the alphabet of postal symbols and are masked with the further formation of stegocontainers. A set of masks is a secret key used further to recognize a scene represented in a protected form by a set of stegocontainers. The article deals with the organization of specialized DBMS for the protection of cartographic scene data with the introduction of two levels of such DBMS – server and client. Mono- and multicluster organization of request processing is offered for the server part of the DBMS. Practical recommendations on the use of mono- and multiclusters are given.

Keywords: associative steganography, masking, stegomessage, cartographic databases, parallel DBMS, mono- and multicluster, scene analysis, cryptography, stegostability, information security

In today's information environment, characterized by the increasing digitalization of various aspects of daily life, information security is of paramount importance. Many types of personal information, including identity, financial and medical records, are digitally stored. Organizations need to protect their intellectual assets, sensitive data and business information from competitors and insider threats. The synergistic approach of combining cryptography and steganography provides increased sophistication in analyzing transmitted data and reduces its vulnerability to attacks based on statistical analysis and other pattern detection techniques. Associative Steganography is a methodology that integrates the basic principles of steganography and cryptography to provide strong data protection. The development of a software application designed for associative file protection can be applied in a wide range of areas and has significant potential in the context of information security. In this article the prerequisites for creating this application are discussed, the program design of the application is described using UML (Unified Modeling Language) and aspects of its implementation are analyzed. In addition, the results of testing the application are investigated and further prospects for the development of associative steganography are proposed.

Keywords: associative steganography, stego messaging, stego resistance, cryptography, information security, Unified Modeling Language, .NET Framework runtime, Windows Presentation Foundation, DeflateStream, BrotliStream, MemoryStream, parallel programming