Random Selection of Crossover Operation with Mutation for Image Encryption––A New Approach

Abstract

Securing multimedia information from attacks is a challenging task. There is a need of a versatile technique to convert the multimedia information into the unintelligent form to protect from vulnerability. A new approach based on random selection of crossover operation and mutation to secure the digital images is proposed. It comprises three different stages. In the first stage, three different crossover operations namely, one point, two points and uniform crossover operations of a genetic algorithm are implemented. Crossover points for one point and two points are generated on the basis of pseudo random number generator. For a selection of crossover operations, 4-bit linear feedback register is designed to generate the unpredictable sequence in the second stage. In the third stage, an encryption process is carried out on the input image based on the selected crossover operation. Further, mutation operation based on exclusive OR operation is performed to enhance the unpredictability. Experiments are conducted for different types of images with different crossover operation. The proposed work is analyzed in terms of entropy, peak signal to noise ratio, structural and feature similarity index. From the result obtained it is evident that the proposed approach increases the randomness and enhances the security for the digital images.