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Metaheuristic-supported image encryption framework based on binary search tree and DNA encoding

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Abstract

Rapid evolution in digital communication increases the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data. Digital images are one of the most popular types and are frequently used to share various information including many sensitive data. Hence, security of the digital images is one of the major concerns for reliable data communication. This work addresses this issue and proposes a novel image encryption technique in which the concept of the binary search tree is introduced. The structure of the binary search tree is optimized with the help of the electromagnetism-like optimization approach that optimizes the image entropy. The proposed approach also incorporates the concept of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) encoding and based on this concept bitplane decomposition is used to get DNA bit planes. A scrambling approach is also proposed to add an additional layer of security. This approach is a symmetric image encryption scheme and is completely lossless. The performance of this approach is tested in terms of both qualitative and quantitative manner. Experimental results and comparative outcomes with the state-of-the-art approaches are encouraging and prove the efficiency of the proposed approach.

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Correspondence to Shouvik Chakraborty.

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Roy, M., Chakraborty, S. & Mali, K. Metaheuristic-supported image encryption framework based on binary search tree and DNA encoding. Multimed Tools Appl 83, 25321–25349 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-16471-x

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