Chapter Four - A novel image encryption and decryption scheme by using DNA computing

Chiranjeev Bhaya, Arup Kumar Pal, SK Hafizul Islam

Abstract: This chapter presents the application of DNA computing in the field of image cryptosystems. Since images are multimedia data with high redundancy, conventional algorithms for encrypting text data prove to be impractical. Cryptosystems for images have to be designed in such a way as to make sure that they remove both visual and statistical content from the original data, for which DNA computing stands as an efficient tool. Several such cryptosystems designed for natural, color, and medical images have been reviewed in this chapter. Researchers have developed various DNA-based operations to be used in image cryptosystems, which have been elaborately discussed. The basic algorithms used in most of the cryptosystems have been discussed, and a cryptosystem has been proposed to illustrate the working of the various steps involved. The essential security parameters required for any image cryptosystem have been presented, and performance evaluation of the proposed method on various standard images has been shown. In the end, the chapter throws some light on the possible improvements, motivating the readers to add some significant contributions to this exciting subject.