An evolutionary image encryption system with chaos theory and DNA encoding

This article proposes a novel evolutionary image encryption approach based on an elitist genetic algorithm, a modified logistic map, and DNA encoding. The initial population comprises the DNA masks which are formed using the DNA sequences and modified logistic map. The elitist genetic algorithm determines the optimal mask depending on the value of the information entropy which is used as the objective function. The simple elitist genetic algorithm is used to get the optimal DNA mask to keep the process simple and reduce the computational burden. The proposed approach can significantly improve the performance of the encryption process by determining the optimal mask which is suitable for a certain image. The experimental outcomes and their analysis establish that the proposed approach produces excellent results and is resilient against different types of attacks. A detailed and comprehensive analysis of the overall system will certainly help adapt the proposed approach to make real-life image communications secure.