Title: Using a DNA tape as a key for encrypt images

Authors: Mohammed Abbas Fadhil Al-Husainy; Hamza Abbass Al-Sewadi; Shadi R. Masadeh

Addresses: College of Engineering, Almaaqal University, Basrah, Iraq ' Communication Engineering Department, Iraq University College, Basrah, Iraq ' Faculty of Information Technology, Isra University, Amman, Jordan

Abstract: Security of sensitive information, such as medical, financial, and national security records, whether in transmission or storage are of high concern nowadays. Due to the unique feature of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), it is anticipated that their utilisation would prove beneficial for new cryptographic schemes. A great benefit of the DNA concept is that their sequence is indefinitely long, unique, and has a binary sort of behaviour lending itself to digital computer implementations. This paper presents an innovative method for utilising the DNA features which are incredibly stable and unique for every living being by first: treating the image and the key used as chains of the four nucleotides of the DNA (A, T, C, G), second: building and using map tables to implement the encryption operations. Experiments with different types and sizes of images have given promising results in comparison with available image encryption schemes.

Keywords: DNA cryptography; key generation; image encryption; sensitive applications; random sequence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2022.123868

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2022 Vol.14 No.4, pp.373 - 387

Received: 13 Apr 2021
Accepted: 29 Jul 2021
Published online: 04 Jul 2022 *

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