Image encryption with DNA

There have been numerous ideas about how the properties of the genetic material DNA might be used to store other kinds of information, be used in components for self-replicating nanoscopic devices, and much more. Now, work in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics explains how a DNA tape might be used as a key for encrypted images.

Mohammed Abbas Fadhil Al-Husainy of Almaaqal University, Hamza Abbass Al-Sewadi of Iraq University College both in Basrah, Iraq, and Shadi R. Masadeh of Isra University in Amman, Jordan, suggest that there might be applications in medical, financial, military, and national security. They point out that the longer an encryption key, the more secure the encryption. DNA lends itself to ready conversion to computer binary and offers as long an encryption key as is desired. DNA has been used previously in information coding to solve infamous mathematical problems such as the archetypal travelling salesman problem. It has also been investigated widely for a potential role in cryptography.

The new work demonstrates how the binary data that represents a digital image can be mapped to a DNA sequence. Sections of the DNA sequence itself are then used to encrypt the digital representation of that sequence. The team suggests this is a highly efficient process and creates a huge “key space” that will thwart third-party decryption of the encoded image by exhaustive attacks and statistical attacks that might be used to break lesser encryption methods.

The team adds that for additional security the image data encrypted using the DNA technique might be encrypted again with more conventional techniques to create an even more secure, hybrid, file that would multiply the time needed to break it many times over.

Al-Husainy, M.A.F., Al-Sewadi, H.A. and Masadeh, S.R. (2022) ‘Using a DNA tape as a key for encrypt images’, Int. J. Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp.373–387.