Digital Image Security: using different cryptographic

techniques and algorithms.

Deep Dilip Nandu
Computer Engineering Department
Shah and Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College
Mumbai.
deep.nandu@sakec.ac.in

Abstract— Nowadays digital images are widely used to
communicate over the internet. This paper is mainly based on
different cryptographic techniques used while communicating
with someone over network. The security of these images is a
crucial task on the communication channel. A digital image is a
representation of a real image as a set of numbers that can be
stored and handled by a digital computer. In order to translate
the image into numbers, it is divided into small areas called pixels
(picture elements). For each pixel, the imaging device records a
number, or a small set of numbers, that describe some property
of this pixel, such as its brightness (the intensity of the light) or its
colour. To achieve the goals of the security the CIA i.e.
confidentiality, integrity, availability various methods are used to
secure these digital images such as encryption, steganography
and watermarking. This paper presents a survey of different
image security techniques and algorithms that have been
previously proposed. It also provides various aspects used for the
image security.
Keywords— security, CIA, steganography, watermarking.
I. INTRODUCTION
The recent growth of networked multimedia systems has
increased the need for the protection of digital media.
This is particularly important for the protection and
enforcement of intellectual property rights. Digital
media includes text, digital audio, images, video and
software. The purpose of the image security is to protect
the unauthorized users from accessing the data of the
data. The application of image encryption and video
encryption are there in various fields such as internet
communication, multimedia systems, medical imaging,
Tele-medicine and military communication.
There are many techniques to secure images including
encryption, watermarking, digital watermarking,
reversible watermarking, cryptography, steganography
etc. In this paper a review on encryption, steganography
and watermarking is presented.
Encryption: Encryption is the method by which
information is converted into secret code that hides the
information's true meaning. The science or process of
encrypting and decrypting information is
called cryptography. In encryption the process of
encryption the unencrypted data is called plain text and
the coded or encrypted data is called cipher text. The
process or formulas that are used to encrypt and decrypt
the data are known as the encryption algorithms or
ciphers.
For the encryption algorithms to function effectively
there is a variable that is a part of the algorithm. The
variable is called the key, the key is what makes the
ciphers output unique. When an intruder intercepts the
encrypted message from a particular sender, the intruder
has to guess the encryption algorithm used by the user
and also the key used for the encryption. Guessing the
correct variables for this is not easy and it is time
consuming that makes encryption an asset.
There are two types of encryption: -
Symmetric Encryption: Here we use a single key which
is by the sender to encrypt the message and is shared
among all the authorized systems to decrypt the
message. This is also known as secret key encryption.
Example: AES (advanced encryption standard).
Asymmetric Encryption: This is also known as public
key encryption. This uses two different types of keys a
public and a private key they are different but logically
linked. These encryptions often use prime numbers to
create the keys. Example: RSA.

Steganography:
The art and science of hiding information by embedding
messages within other, seemingly harmless messages.
Steganography works by replacing bits of useless or
unused data in regular computer files (such as graphics,
sound, text, HTML, or even floppy disks) with bits of
different, invisible information. This hidden information
can be plain text, cipher text, or even images.
Steganography sometimes is used when encryption is
not permitted. Or, more commonly, steganography is
used to supplement encryption. An encrypted file may
still hide information using steganography, so even if the
encrypted file is deciphered, the hidden message is not
seen. Special software is needed for steganography, and
there are freeware versions available at any good
download site. Steganography (literally meaning covered
writing) dates back to ancient Greece, where common
practices consisted of etching messages in wooden
tablets and covering them with wax, and tattooing a
shaved messenger's head, letting his hair grow back, then
shaving it again when he arrived at his contact point.
Watermarking: -
In digital watermarking technique a watermark signal or
mark is embedded into the source that should be
protected from unauthorized use. Watermark technique
is used for copyright protection that has evolved with
time. This is done to verify the credibility of the user or
to identify the identity of the digital content’s owner. It
can also be used for hidden communication, source
tracking. The publishers of some magazines used an
invisible watermark to prevent their content from being
used illegally at unauthorized websites.
TYPES OF WATERMARKING:
 Visible watermark
Visible watermarking technique generate a visible logo
or symbol that clearly seen on watermarked image. This
type of watermark used for showing the ownership of
content like TV channel.
 Invisible Watermark
This type of watermark is used to find the ownership as
well as prevention from authorized application of image
or content. Here, a watermark can insert information into
an image which cannot be seen but can be interrogated
with the watermark extraction algorithm.
 Robust Watermark
Robustness watermarking scheme is used for sign
copyright information of the digital works, the
embedded watermark can resist the common edit
processing and various attacks.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
A. A new image encryption based on hyper chaos, 2008
This method proposed by Gao and Cheng uses hyper
chaos to encrypt the image. This encryption is divided
into two parts the first part contains total shuffling of the
image pixels, the second part the shuffled part is
encrypted using hyper chaos. The hyper chaos is used to
change the gray values of the image pixels. In the first
part row transformation based on logistic map, using
which the plain image is shuffled. After the shuffling of
the pixel’s encryption is done but the histogram of the
image does not change it remains same as original
image.
B. An Image Encryption and Authentication scheme,
2011
The scheme was proposed by Jing Qiuand ping Wang.
This method presents a fast image encryption and
authentication scheme. In the scheme, a 512-bit message
authentication code (MAC) of the plain image is
converted into 64 bytes and these 64 bytes are replaced
with the image pixels in some way. Replaced pixels are
then embedded into the image by reversible data
embedding technique. Then the embedded image is
masked by pseudo random sequence in feedback mode.
This code provides encryption and authentication to the
image.
C. Image cryptography: The Genetic Algorithm
Approach, 2011
The genetic algorithm approach was proposed by Sandeep
Bhowmik and Sriyanker Acharya. In this approach, the
Genetic algorithm an important method of artificial
intelligence has been applied to generate ‘key’ for the
encryption algorithm. In this work a hybridized technique
called BlowGA is used which is a combination of Blowfish
and GA. This new approach has outperformed the result both
Blowfish and GA separately.
D. An Encryption and Decryption Algorithm for Image
Based on DNA
In 2013, a color image encryption algorithm based on
DNA sequence function and hyper chaotic system was
proposed. In this paper hyper chaotic system is used to
scramble the pixel positions then the data of the colored
image is converted into three matrices of R, G, and B
which are then converted into binary matrices and DNA
addition operation is performed. The experimental
results and the security analysis show that the algorithm
has good encryption effect larger secret key space and
high sensitivity to the secret key.
III. CONCLUSION
In the digital world these days, the security of the digital
image is essential and of paramount importance. Image
are used in many applications in our daily lives. The
security within transfer of information is critical.
Various techniques such as encryption, steganography
etc. has been evolved over the years the efficiency and
energy consumption associated with these techniques
still require improvement. Hence it is necessary to
acknowledge the integrity and the confidentiality of the
digital image that is being transmitted over the network.
Some of the image encrypting techniques and algorithms
are discussed that play crucial role in image
transmission. All the techniques and algorithms are
unique and have effective application. In this paper we
studied some conventional cryptographic techniques that
provide high security rate.
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