Analysis of Parameters Influencing the Performance of Digital Image Encryption using ECC

Abstract

Digital images are widely used in various domains, including social media, military, and healthcare. However, the security of digital images is threatened by cyber-attacks and privacy concerns. Cryptography plays a crucial role in ensuring the privacy and integrity of data, including digital images. Encryption methods are employed to protect digital images from unauthorized access. Among these methods, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is particularly effective, offering robust security with shorter key lengths. This research paper analysis ECC-based encryption methods for digital image encryption, considering parameters that impact their performance.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Billions of digital images are shared on messaging apps   and social media every second. However, these images face security threats like alteration, illegal acquisition, and data disclosure. To minimize damages caused by malicious parties, encryption, steganography, and watermarking methods are used. Image encryption converts original images into unrecognizable encrypted versions, ensuring security and privacy.

This technique finds applications in medical imaging, communication, multimedia, and various other domains where data protection is crucial. The main objectives of encryption are confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation. These criteria play a crucial role in selecting an encryption method.

Encryption methods can be categorized into symmetric, asymmetric. Symmetric encryption employs a single private key, which is used by both the sender and receiver for encryption and decryption. Examples of symmetric encryption methods include AES, DES, and Hill cipher. While symmetric encryption is simple and fast, sharing the key securely among a large number of users can be challenging and inefficient. Asymmetric encryption, also known as public-key encryption, involves the use of two keys: a public key and a private key. Mathematical methods are used for key exchange. The Diffie-Hellman key exchange is an example of a solution to the key exchange problem. Public key encryption methods, such as RSA and ECC, utilize public and private keys for encryption and decryption. Digital image encryption differs significantly from text encryption, as there are additional parameters and considerations specific to image encryption these parameters are Entropy, PSNR, UACI etc.

II. DEFINITION

A. Image

A digital image is a collection of pixels arranged in a grid, with each pixel representing a small unit of colour or intensity. The image can be represented by a matrix, where rows and columns correspond to pixel values, capturing the colour or intensity information. There are three main types of digital images: binary, grayscale, and colour (RGB)

B. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)

Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a public key encryption method introduced by Koblitz and Miller in 1985. ECC has gained popularity due to its strong security and ability to achieve the same level of security with shorter key sizes compared to other encryption methods like RSA. ECC operations are performed on finite fields, which offer more precise and efficient results. To understand ECC, let’s consider an elliptic curve denoted as E(a, b) on a finite field Fp. Here, ’a’ and ’b’ are integers that are smaller than a sufficiently large prime number ’p’. The equation defining the elliptic curve is given as follows: y2 = x3 + ax + b(modp)

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Conclusion

In the paper titled” Analysis of Parameters Influencing the Performance of Digital Image Encryption using ECC” the authors focus on the utilization of ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) in image encryption. ECC has gained significant popularity due to its advantageous features, including short key sizes and low power consumption. As a result, it has found widespread use in various fields, particularly in image encryption. When evaluating the quality of digital image encryption, numerous parameters are considered. These parameters include entropy, NPCR (Number of Pixels Change Rate), and NPCR, ENTROPY etc. It is important for these parameters to exhibit optimal values in the encrypted image. In the paper, two techniques are explored for image encryption using ECC Schemes1 and schemes2. Scheme 2 offers better time complexity and both schemes successfully preserve the integrity of the decrypted images. Scheme 1\'s higher information entropy and weaker statistical relationship with the original images make it the preferable choice for achieving higher security in encryption.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Farhan Ahmed Saleem, Vibhakar Mansotra . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.