Image Encryption Using Block-Based Transformation Algorithm

Encryption is used to securely transmit data in open networks. Each type of data has its own features, therefore different techniques should be used to protect conf idential image data from unauthorized access. Most of the available encryption algorithms are mainly used for textual data and may not be suitable for multimedia data such as images. In this paper, we introduce a block-based transformation algorithm based on the combination of image transformation and a well known encryption and decryption algorithm called Blowfish. The original image was divided into blocks, which were rearranged into a transformed image using a transformation algorithm presented here, and then the transformed image was encrypted using the Blowfish algorithm. The results showed that the correlation between image elements was sig nificantly decreased by using the proposed technique. The results also show that increasing the number of blocks by using smaller block sizes resulted in a lower correlation and hig her entropy.