Abstract
The continuous digitization of healthcare services makes them more targeted by security attackers that attempt to steal the patients’ confidential records and hijack their healthcare rights. Consequently, many existing approaches were proposed to protect healthcare data and services. However, these current solutions lack efficiency, as indicated by the high number of security breaches in healthcare systems. Therefore, this research was motivated to introduce a more efficient algorithm that achieves several essential security requirements such as authentication, confidentiality, and integrity while preserving high resistance against a comprehensive set of different security threats. This proposed algorithm is a hybrid optical-based that utilizes effective hashing, steganography, and encryption techniques for the secure transmission of color or grayscale medical images, even over insecure channels. The input medical image is initially decomposed into three color components (red, green, and blue). Then, each one of these color components is forwarded to multiple sequential security stages. At the first security stage, the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)-based compressive sensing technique is employed to compress the color components of the plaintext medical image to obtain the compressed image components. After that, the sigmoid function-based quantization process is applied to the compressed image components to generate the digital quantized image components. The digital pixels of these components will then be encrypted using Rubik’s cube-based encryption algorithm to obtain the final ciphertext medical image. In parallel, to ensure the authentication and integrity of the transmitted medical image, the image phase component is extracted using the optical Double Random Phase Encoding (DRPE) technique. Then, it is quantized before concatenation with a secret key and forwarded to the SHA-256 hashing algorithm to generate the HMAC digest (Hash-based Message Authentication Code value). The HMAC digest is then embedded using Least Significant Bit (LSB)-based steganography within the final encrypted color medical image to increase its secrecy. The proposed algorithm was extensively evaluated using different quality and security assessment metrics to validate its robustness and efficiency against various channel noise and attacks. The obtained outcomes prove the higher performance of the proposed algorithm for secure medical image communication than other recent and related security algorithms in terms of all tested computational and security parameters. In addition, the obtained results confirm that the optical-based security techniques have superior efficiency & robustness and low complexity compared to the related traditional digital-based security techniques.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
References
Abd-El-Atty B, Iliyasu A M, Alanezi A, Abd El-latif A A (2021) Optical image encryption based on quantum walks. Opt Lasers Eng 138:106403
Abd EL-Latif A A, Abd-El-Atty B, Abou-Nassar E M, Venegas-Andraca S E (2020) Controlled alternate quantum walks based privacy preserving healthcare images in internet of things. Opt Laser Technol 124:105942
Abdulla A A, Sellahewa H, Jassim S A (2014) Stego quality enhancement by message size reduction and fibonacci bit-plane mapping. In: International conference on research in security standardisation. Springer, pp 151–166
Abdulla A A, Sellahewa H, Jassim S A (2019) Improving embedding efficiency for digital steganography by exploiting similarities between secret and cover images. Multimed Tools Applic 78(13):17799–17823
Abdulla A A (2020) Efficient computer-aided diagnosis technique for leukaemia cancer detection. IET Image Proc 14(17):4435–4440
Al-Zubaidie M, Zhang Z, Zhang J (2019) Ramhu: a new robust lightweight scheme for mutual users authentication in healthcare applications. Security and Communication Networks, 2019
Alarifi A, Sankar S, Altameem T, Jithin KC, Amoon M, El-Shafai W (2020) A novel hybrid cryptosystem for secure streaming of high efficiency h. 265 compressed videos in iot multimedia applications. IEEE Access 8:128548–128573
Alder S July 2021 Healthcare data breach report, https://www.hipaajournal.com/july-2021-healthcare-data-breach-report/
Almomani I, Ahmed M, El-Shafai W (2022) Defoff: defensive/offensive system based on hiding technologies. In: 2022 2nd International Conference of Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (SMARTTECH). IEEE, pp 214–219
Almomani I, AlKhayer A, El-Shafai W (2021) Novel ransomware hiding model using hevc steganography approach. CMC Comput Mater Contin 70:1209–1228
Almomani I, Alkhayer A, El-Shafai W (2022) A crypto-steganography approach for hiding ransomware within hevc streams in android iot devices. Sensors 22(6):2281
Alqahtani F, Amoon M, El-Shafai W (2022) A fractional fourier based medical image authentication approach. CMC-Computers Materials & Continua 70 (2):3133–3150
Amirtharajan R, et al. (2020) A robust medical image encryption in dual domain: chaos-dna-iwt combined approach. Med Biol Eng Comput 58(7):1445–1458
Biswas P, Kandar S, Dhara B C (2020) An image encryption scheme using sequence generated by interval bisection of polynomial function. Multimed Tools Applic 79(43):31715–31738
Borda M (2011) Fundamentals in information theory and coding. Springer Science & Business Media
Chen M, Ma G, Tang C, Lei Z (2020) Generalized optical encryption framework based on shearlets for medical image. Opt Lasers Eng 128:106026
Coppersmith D (1994) The data encryption standard (des) and its strength against attacks. IBM J Res Develop 38(3):243–250
Donoho D L (2006) Compressed sensing. IEEE Trans Inform Theory 52(4):1289–1306
El-Shafai W, Almomani I M, Alkhayer A (2021) Optical bit-plane-based 3d-jst cryptography algorithm with cascaded 2d-frft encryption for efficient and secure hevc communication. IEEE Access 9:35004–35026
El-Shafai W, Aly M H, Algarni A D, Abd El-Samie F E, Soliman N F (2022) Secure and robust optical multi-stage medical image cryptosystem. CMC-Computers Materials & Continua 70(1):895–913
El-Shafai W, Khallaf F, El-Rabaie E-S M, Abd El-Samie F E (2021) Robust medical image encryption based on dna-chaos cryptosystem for secure telemedicine and healthcare applications. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput, 1–29
El-Shafai W, Mesrega A K, Ahmed H E H, El-Bahnasawy N A, Abd El-Samie F E (2022) An efficient multimedia compression-encryption scheme using latin squares for securing internet-of-things networks. J Inform Secur Applic 64:103039
Fan H, Li M, Mao W (2017) Vq-based compressive sensing with high compression quality. Electron Lett 53(17):1196–1198
Faragallah O S, Alzain M A, El-Sayed H S, Al-Amri J F, El-Shafai W, Afifi A, Naeem E A, Soh B (2018) Block-based optical color image encryption based on double random phase encoding. IEEE Access 7:4184–4194
Faragallah O S, AlZain M A, El-Sayed H S, Al-Amri J F, El-Shafai W, Afifi A, Naeem E A, Soh B (2020) Secure color image cryptosystem based on chaotic logistic in the frft domain. Multimed Tools Applic 79(3):2495–2519
Faragallah O S, El-sayed H S, Afifi A, El-Shafai W (2021) Efficient and secure opto-cryptosystem for color images using 2d logistic-based fractional fourier transform. Opt Lasers Eng 137:106333
Faragallah O S, El-Shafai W, Sallam A I, Elashry I, EL-Rabaie E-S M, Afifi A, AlZain M A, Al-Amri J F, Abd El-Samie F E, El-sayed H S (2021) Cybersecurity framework of hybrid watermarking and selective encryption for secure hevc communication. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput, 1–25
George S N, Pattathil D P (2014) A novel approach for secure compressive sensing of images using multiple chaotic maps. J Opt 43(1):1–17
Godinho T M, Lebre R, Silva L B , Costa C (2017) An efficient architecture to support digital pathology in standard medical imaging repositories. J Biomed Inform 71:190–197
Gopinathan U, Monaghan D S, Naughton T J, Sheridan J T, Javidi B (2005) Strengths and weaknesses of optical encryption algorithms. In: 2005 IEEE LEOS Annual meeting conference proceedings. IEEE, pp 951–952
Gueron S, Johnson S, Walker J (2011) Sha-512/256. In: 2011 Eighth international conference on information technology: new generations. IEEE, pp 354–358
Hafsa A, Gafsi M, Malek J, Machhout M (2021) Fpga implementation of improved security approach for medical image encryption and decryption. Sci Program 2021:1–20
Hazer A, Yıldırım R (2021) A review of single and multiple optical image encryption techniques. J Opt
Helmy M, El-Shafai W, El-Rabaie S, El-Dokany IM, El-Samie F E A (2021) Efficient security framework for reliable wireless 3d video transmission. Multidimension Syst Signal Process, 1–41
Jeevitha S, Prabha N A (2021) Novel medical image encryption using dwt block-based scrambling and edge maps. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput 12(3):3373–3388
Kamal S T, Hosny K M, Elgindy T M, Darwish M M, Fouda M M (2021) A new image encryption algorithm for grey and color medical images. IEEE Access 9:37855–37865
Kang S W, Choi U S, Cho S J (2021) Fast image encryption algorithm based on (n, m, k)-pcmlca. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 1–27
Karim SM Masud, Rahman M S, Hossain M I (2011) A new approach for lsb based image steganography using secret key. In: 14th International conference on computer and information technology (ICCIT 2011). IEEE, pp 286–291
Licks V, Jordan R (2005) Geometric attacks on image watermarking systems. IEEE Multimed 12(3):68–78
Liu J, Ma Y, Li S, Lian J, Zhang X (2018) A new simple chaotic system and its application in medical image encryption. Multimed Tools Applic 77(17):22787–22808
Liu S, Guo C, Sheridan J T (2014) A review of optical image encryption techniques. Opt Laser Technol 57:327–342
Maurya A K, Das A K, Jamal S S, Giri D (2021) Secure user authentication mechanism for iot-enabled wireless sensor networks based on multiple bloom filters. J Syst Architect 120:102296
Moon I, Yi F, Han M, Lee J (2016) Efficient asymmetric image authentication schemes based on photon counting-double random phase encoding and rsa algorithms. Appl Opt 55(16):4328–4335
Nematzadeh H, Enayatifar R, Motameni H, Guimarães F G, Coelho V N (2018) Medical image encryption using a hybrid model of modified genetic algorithm and coupled map lattices. Opt Lasers Eng 110:24–32
Refregier P, Javidi B (1995) Optical image encryption based on input plane and fourier plane random encoding. Opt Lett 20(7):767–769
Scott D W (1979) On optimal and data-based histograms. Biometrika 66(3):605–610
Selvi C T, Amudha J, Sudhakar R (2021) Medical image encryption and compression by adaptive sigma filterized synorr certificateless signcryptive levenshtein entropy-coding-based deep neural learning. Multimed Syst, 1–16
Shen Y, Tang C, Xu M, Lei Z (2021) Optical selective encryption based on the frfcm algorithm and face biometric for the medical image. Opt Laser Technol 138:106911
Stone C J (1984) An asymptotically optimal histogram selection rule. In: Proceedings of the Berkeley conference in honor of Jerzy Neyman and Jack Kiefer, vol 2. Wadsworth, pp 513–520
Taylor J (1997) Introduction to error analysis, the study of uncertainties in physical measurements. University Science Books, 648 Broadway, Suite 902, New York, NY 10012
Thanki R (2020) Genetic algorithm-based intelligent watermarking for security of medical images in telemedicine applications. In: Intelligent data security solutions for e-health applications. Elsevier, pp 185–204
Umbaugh S E (2010) Digital image processing and analysis: human and computer vision applications with cviptools. CRC press
Vandana A, Sachin S, Singh P (2021) Cascaded unequal modulus decomposition in fresnel domain based cryptosystem to enhance the image security. Opt Lasers Eng 137:106399
Yousif S F, Abboud A J, Alhumaima R S (2022) A new image encryption based on bit replacing, chaos and dna coding techniques. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 1–41
Yousif S F, Abboud A J, Radhi H Y (2020) Robust image encryption with scanning technology, the el-gamal algorithm and chaos theory. IEEE Access 8:155184–155209
Zhou K, Fan J, Fan H, Li M (2020) Secure image encryption scheme using double random-phase encoding and compressed sensing. Opt Laser Technol 121:105769
Zhu S, Zhu C (2019) A new image compression-encryption scheme based on compressive sensing and cyclic shift. Multimed Tools Applic 78 (15):20855–20875
Ziou D, Tabbone S, et al. (1998) Edge detection techniques-an overview. Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis C/C of Raspoznavaniye Obrazov I Analiz Izobrazhenii 8:537–559
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Prince Sultan University, especially the Security Engineering Lab (SEL). Moreover, this research was done during the author Iman Almomani’s sabbatical year 2021/2022 from The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
We declare that we have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Walid El-Shafai, Iman Almomani, Anees Ara and Aala Alkhayer contributed equally to this work.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
El-Shafai, W., Almomani, I., Ara, A. et al. An optical-based encryption and authentication algorithm for color and grayscale medical images. Multimed Tools Appl 82, 23735–23770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-14093-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-14093-3