IoT based medical image encryption using linear feedback shift register – Towards ensuring security for teleradiology applications

Telemedicine gains prominence in today’s scenario and image security plays a vital role in the healthcare sector for authenticating data transfer. Medical data, when transferred through a cloud network should be encrypted to ensure security, this research work proposes a medical image encryption scheme using a linear feedback shift register (LFSR). The LFSR generates pseudo-random numbers and shuffles the pixel position. The encrypted image was transferred through a cloud platform, receiver side node decrypts the data to recover the original image. The Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) computed tomography images are utilized in this research work and for IoT implementation, a Raspberry Pi B+ processor was used. The IoT implementation facilitates data transfer through the cloud network. The performance validation was done by metrics and the results reveal the proficiency of the encryption/decryption model. The decrypted image quality was evaluated in terms of the Peak to Signal Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Means Square Error (MSE), low value of the correlation coefficient proves the robustness of the encryption. The outcome of the research work paves the way for the researchers in the secure transfer of medical data through the cloud platform.