“From Kilobytes to Kilodaltons”: A Novel Algorithm for Medical Image Encryption based on the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

With the continued integration of technology in medicine, large amounts of patient data are often vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Medical data must be secured, however traditional cryptographic algorithms are inapplicable to medical images due to factors such as bulk data capacity, strong correlation among adjacent pixels, and high redundancy. To address the need for new medical image encryption algorithms, a novel approach based on the central dogma of molecular biology is proposed. The resulting algorithm has a linear runtime complexity, and is resistant to brute force, differential and statistical attacks. The algorithm advances the state-of-the-art in DNA-based image encryption and surpasses recent approaches in medical image encryption in its defence against cyber-attacks. Clinical Relevance— Secure data transmission and storage is critical for patient privacy. This algorithm increases the security of patient imaging when compared to image encryption algorithms in literature