Medical Image Encryption Scheme Using Multiple Chaotic Maps

•Encryption scheme for images employing multiple chaotic maps.•The scheme increases the security of the image encryption in medical applications.•Chaotic Map based encryption scheme is also lightweight in implementation. Telemedicine and various tele-medicinal applications are revolutionizing a variety of healthcare departments through its innovative means of remote diagnosing and faster first aid administration. Digital images play an important role in these applications for ensuring better and faster health carfigure. These digital images, which usually contain confidential and diagnostic information about the patients, are usually transmitted through public networks among hospitals, doctors and patients. Consequently, there is a need to secure them while being stored and in transit to guarantee the privacy of the patient. However, unique properties of digital image data, such as high redundancy and correlation between the pixels of the image and their large size, make the conventional cryptographical algorithms insufficient for ensuring proper security while encrypting them. As the conventional algorithms seize to be a reliable solution, the need to develop improved and dedicated image encryption algorithms also arises. Chaotic systems are systems that appear random and unpredictable from the outside but are governed by deterministic equations or rules on the inside. Due to these properties, along with ergodicity and its heightened sensitivity to the initial conditions, chaotic systems are devised to be one of the best candidates for securing the storage and transmission of digital images. However, the security of a chaotic image encryption system depends upon the chaotic behavior demonstrated by the chaotic map applied in the image encryption system. Because of this, different attacks can be used to break a chaotic encryption system if the scheme is not well-structured. This paper introduces a chaotic image encryption scheme that incorporates two chaotic maps, namely, Arnold's Cat Map and 2D Logistic-Sine-Coupling Map(2D-LSCM), for increased randomness and security of the encrypted image. We also analyze the performance and security of our scheme and compare it with other prominent chaotic image encryption schemes.