Secure Image Encryption Based on Visual Cryptography

Abstract

Information security is a major issue today for any company or individual who conducts business electronically. It is of utmost important that mechanisms are set up to ensure information and data security. Cryptography is one of the technological means to provide security to data being transmitted on information and communications systems. In this paper we consider a new type of cryptographic scheme; encryption is used to securely transmit data in open networks. The increasing use of digital techniques for transmitting and storing images, integrity as well as the authenticity of image has become a major concern. Visual cryptography is a cryptographic technique which allows visual information to be encrypted. Visual cryptography can be seen as a one-time pad system. Then, it cannot be reused. This system presents a 2 out of 2 schemes based on visual cryptography of image encryption. Visual cryptography is a powerful technique which combines the notions of perfect ciphers and secret sharing in cryptography. Visual cryptography can decode concealed images without any cryptographic computation.