Multilayered digital image encryption approach to resist cryptographic attacks for cybersecurity

In today’s digital age, protecting sensitive image data is more important than ever, especially with the rise of computing advancements, which threaten traditional encryption methods. This article presents a novel image encryption model designed to enhance security against both conventional and future cyber threats. Our approach combines multiple encryption techniques, including Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Triple DES (DES3), and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), along with additional security measures such as pixel shuffling, left circular shifting, and exclusive NOR (XNOR) operations. To ensure secure key exchange, we incorporate Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) and a hash-based key derivation function (HKDF) using a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). By encapsulating the encrypted image and keys within a secure archive, this method provides a strong and durable solution to safeguard digital images in the evolving landscape of cybersecurity. The proposed cryptosystem achieves the high information entropy, the Number of Pixel Change Rate (NPCR), and the Unified Average Change Intensity (UACI) of 7.9995, 99.59% and 49.96%, respectively. In addition, the proposed model offers a large keyspace and demonstrates an avalanche effect of more than 50% which effectively resists various cryptographic attacks. The achieved results highlight the suitability of the proposed approach for robust encryption and resistance against various attacks. This combination of techniques helps to mitigate the shortcomings of standalone techniques and safeguard sensitive visual data in increasingly hostile digital environments.