Techniques Available for Image Encryption - Research Paper Example

College The world today is characterized by a lot of information sharing and data storage. To protect client data and other important company data from potential loss or access by unauthorized personnel, companies go to extremes. It is for this reason that companies and other stakeholders take extreme measures in information hiding. One of the security measures that most companies use to protect their data and that of their clients is image encryption. Techniques that are available for image encryption include: DNA techniques, Modern Cryptography, Chaos techniques, just to mention a few. This paper is a summary of the encryption algorithms and their classification that is based on their means. We analyze the mathematical based, DNA encryption as well as the Chaos based. The objectives and future achievements that are in place are also discussed. Introduction In our current world, very important information is always transmitted to various places via the internet. For some reason, this information may sometimes be accessed by people who should not access the information at all e.g. internet hackers. It is for this reason that most organizations prefer to use image hiding to protect the crucial information that they move in the network. Image encryption is the cryptographic process that involves the transformation of plaintext information, using the cipher algorithm so that it is made unreadable to anyone apart from the people who have the professional special knowledge about the encryption usually called the key. As a result ciphertext is made this is encrypted information. In order to make the encrypted message readable again, a process known as decryption is done to the encrypted information (Cimato 56). During the process of image encryption, three main processes are involved. This include; pixel scrambling, this is very simple and in most cases easy to achieve. However its security is compromising. This is because in this process, only the positions of the pixels are changed but not the positions of the pixel gray. The second process is pixel replacement. In this type Boolean operation XOR is used to alter the values of the gray. However if plain attacks come, then the process is not effective. The combination of the pixel replacement and the pixel scrambling is the third process. This is the most effective way to encrypt information. Advantages of image encryption Image encryption is one of the most affordable and important defense mechanisms available to many small businesses. Below are some of its advantages in the application of data security. 1. In case a hacker gets past all other measures of security, a well, encrypted information automatically stops them from getting past this security measure. It is therefore a good security measure. 2. Another importance of encryption is that incase a laptop of an employee working with a lot of information is stolen, the laptop will not be able to work outside that organization due to the encrypted information hence protecting the information. 3. Image encryption is very cheap and efficient compared to other data protection techniques. This is the reason why many businesses prefer to use image encryption. 4. It is also used for the verification and authentication of the image (Tina ET all 78). Section 2 Image encryption techniques Mathematical concept-based image encryption techniques In this type of technique, concepts of mathematics are used to build and design the encryption algorithms. There are three types that are involved; non linear matrix mixing sometimes known as the Arnold transformation, this type mixes pixels according to color space and phase space. It uses the cipher that is derived from cease. The second one is the use of space curves e.g. H curve, E curves and so on. This type uses the principle of non omitted and non repetitive to reach the desired goals (Pommer 112). Recorded pixels are the last one. This type uses the methods of trigonometric transformations, and logarithmic transformations. Secret segment and secret sharing based image encryption techniques In secret segmentation, the information is divided into a lot of parts. Every part makes no meaning of its own but when the parts are recombined, the information is recovered. In image encryption, the sending breaks the data into several parts and the receiver reconnect the parts to make it readable again. During the breaking period, each person is given a part of the information and it is only possible to read the information if and only if they cooperate at the receiver. It is very secure but its main disadvantage is that incase one part gets lost, and then the information can never be recovered. The secret sharing technique that was proposed by Shamir states that if K is divided into m sub keys, Ki(0m). If the threshold has k value then k can be gained. If the number of parts is less than k then K cannot be gained. Chaos based image encryption technique A system that is ensured and nonlinear always creates a movement that is known as the chaos. Professionals say that chaotic signals look like noise to unauthorized personnel such as hackers hence making it close to impossible to know what is encrypted. The chaotic characters are reconverted using the propositional logics and predicate calculus of it and only if the original image is the same as the parameters. Chaos algorithm does the work of transforming the original image into a form that is unintelligible and this is done so as to achieve the confidentiality and protection from unauthorized personnel (Fisher 79). Principal of chaos based image encryption These principle states that sub processes are to be performed between the chaotic sequence and the original information and this is always ignited by t he chaotic generator. This makes the information to become noise and in the process completing the encryption process. The figure below shows how this happens. DNA cryptography-Based image encryption technique DNA encryption was first made to reduce the time taken for encryption of big images. Its implementation depends on the use of the sequences of natural DNA. To start with, the algorithm first does what is called the pixel scrambling. In pixel scrambling, the object image, which is sometimes known as the original image is confused by the algorithm into the scrambling of the DNA sequence. After this part, pixel replacement follows (Ahmed 76). The algorithm that comes from the image encryption is simple and feasible. This type of encryption has higher security and is robust. Principals of DNA encryption DNA encryption is new born to the encryption industry, in this technology, the information carrier is the DNA and the implementation tool is the biological technology. Signature, encryption and authentication are all achieved by the use of parallelism, information density that is available by the DNA structure, and exceptional energy efficiency. The security issue that may arise from this type of encryption is limited to biotechnology and therefore a hotspot for discussion. This type of encryption has a higher security and a higher ability to store and move the encrypted information as compared to other algorithms. In this the image is divided into two parts the cipher and the key. When this two come together, they form an image that is revealed from the algorithm. Current situation of DNA cryptography In our present time, DNA encryption study is still being explored. There are a lot of factors that has contributed to this key of them being biological factors and some fewer effective methods. The methods that are currently available can be grouped into three groups, these are DNA chip based encryption, DNA strand based encryption, and the DNA model based encryption. It is important to know that though this field is new, a lot of research has been done to facilitate its success. Scenario 3 Visual cryptography This is the type of cryptography that needs no computational machinery for decoding rather the decoding is done by human vision. This method can be applied as a binary image where three images are taken as the input and two images emerge as the output. The combination of the three input images into the final two output images requires the operations of Boolean algebra. By doing this the secret binary images SI can be encoded into n shares that contains meaningful images of the halftone. Application in binary image First the image is divided into two parts. The first part is the key while the second part is the cipher. When these two are separated, they are just random noise to the common eye. However when they are recombined, they reveal an image an example is shown below. The principle of revealing the image state that for every K containing k elements, the image will only be released if and only if the number of pixels revealed equals to k. Advantages It can be used to verify the authenticity of the image It is able to perform lossless compression and the encryption of gray scale images. It is able to use binary algorithms generated from systems that are chaotic Disadvantages Lack of authenticity verification and schemes of compression It takes a lot of time Because of the added redundancy, the size of the images is increased. The main areas of application of image encryption include the following; -Internet communication - Multimedia systems - Military communication - Telemedicine - Medical imaging Work cited Cimato, Stelvio, and Ching-Nung Yang. Visual Cryptography and Secret Image Sharing. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012. Print. Tian, Jun, Tieniu Tan, and Liangpei Zhang. Image Compression and Encryption Technologies: 22-24 October 2001, Wuhan, China. Bellingham, Wash: Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, 2001. Print. Furht, Borivoje, Edin Muharemagic, and Daniel Socek.Multimedia Encryption and Watermarking. New York: Springer, 2005. Print. Ahmed, Hossam E.-H, Hamdy M. Kalash, and Osama S. F. Allah. "An Efficient Chaos-Based Feedback Stream Cipher (ecbfsc) for Image Encryption and Decryption."Informatica. 31.1 (2007): 121-129. Print. Fisher, Yuval. Fractal Image Encoding and Analysis. Berlin: Springer, 1998. Print. Pommer, Andreas, and Andreas Uhl. Image and Video Encryption. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, Inc, 2005. Print. Furht, Borivoje, and Darko Kirovski. Multimedia Encryption and Authentication Techniques and Applications. Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications, 2006. Print. Uhl, Andreas, and Andreas Pommer. Image and Video Encryption: From Digital Rights Management to Secured Personal Communication. New York: Springer Science+Business Media, 2005. Internet resource. Read More