The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) can be attributed to the sudden rise in miniature electronic devices, as well as their computing power and ability to make interconnections. These devices exchange large volumes of confidential information from diverse locations. Similar to the Internet, the IoT has also encountered various issues with information security. Due to limited computing and energy resources in the field of IoT, it is necessary to develop a scheme to ensure feasible and more effective concealment and security properties. This paper proposes a unique methodology that captures an image using IoT sensors, which are subjected to lighter cryptographic operations for conversion into a cipher image, and is then sent to a home server. At the home server, a combined cryptography and steganography approach is employed to conceal the cipher image in a cover image, camouflaging the presence of the secret image, which is then sent to the IoT-Cloud server for storage. During the embedding process, QR decomposition is performed on the RIWT transformed secret image and RIWT-DCT transformed cover image. Modification performed on the R matrix of QR decomposition does not affect the structural properties of the cover image. A block selection algorithm is used to select optimal blocks with high contrast areas to embed the secret image. The experimental results indicate that our scheme enhances imperceptibility, robustness, and resistance to steganalysis attacks. © 2019 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.