With the rapid advancement of data transmission and communication technology, there has been a parallel increase in concerns surrounding privacy and security. Many encryption techniques were introduced to reduce the risk of data loss and malicious attacks. Steganography is also one of those techniques that cover up the existence of certain data in a cover document or media ensuring its safety. This paper presents an image steganography technique that allows the secure transmission of data using the AES algorithm. This advanced encryption-based image steganographic mechanism ensures data encryption with the help of the segmentation key or the steganographic key. The masked-up data is extracted using the same segmentation key from the receiver end to view the data. This technique helps in transmitting confidential data without being accessed by unintended recipients, thereby preserving information secrecy. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.