On the Security of Image Encoding Based on Fractal Functions

The information age brings some unique challenges to society. New technology and new applications bring new threats and force us to invent new protection mechanisms. So every few years, computer security needs to reinvent itself. In this paper we propose a new image encoding system utilizing fractal theories; this approach exploits the main feature of fractals generated by IFS techniques. Two levels of encryption and decryption methods performed to enhance the security of the system. The encrypted date represents the attractor generated by the IFS transformation, Collage theorem is used to find the IFS for decrypting data. The proposed method gives the possibility to hide maximum amount of data in an image that represent the attractor of the IFS without degrading its quality. Also to make the hidden data robust enough to withstand known cryptographic attacks and image processing techniques which do not change the appearance of image. The security level is high because the jointly coded images cannot be correctly reconstructed without all the required information. KeywordsFractal, Iterated Function System (IFS), Attractor, collage theorem