Grayscale-Based Image Encryption Considering Color Sub-sampling Operation for Encryption-then-Compression Systems

A new grayscale-based block scrambling image encryption scheme is presented to enhance the security of Encryption-then-Compression (EtC) systems, which are used to securely transmit images through an untrusted channel provider. The proposed scheme enables the use of a smaller block size and a larger number of blocks than the conventional scheme. Images encrypted using the proposed scheme include less color information due to the use of grayscale images even when the original image has three color channels. These features enhance security against various attacks, such as jigsaw puzzle solver and brute-force attacks. Moreover, it allows the use of color sub-sampling, which can improve the compression performance, although the encrypted images have no color information. In an experiment, encrypted images were uploaded to and then downloaded from Facebook and Twitter, and the results demonstrated that the proposed scheme is effective for EtC systems, while maintaining a high compression performance.