A Novel Random Error Approximate Adder-Based Lightweight Medical Image Encryption Scheme for Secure Remote Monitoring of Health Data

In the present global scenario, social distancing is an inevitable one. The need for social distancing and advancements of technology to facilitate the patients and doctors around the world mandated the telemedicine and remote monitoring of patience details as the pivotal way to diagnose the disease. In this, it is essential to transmit the patient’s information such as X-ray and scan images of them to the doctor in the remote location. Preventing the medical data from the technological adversaries is the need of the hour. Infinitesimal attacks in medical images may cost human lives. This work proposes a lightweight, secure medical image encryption scheme for the remote monitoring of health data. The proposed encryption scheme uses computationally less complex weighted shift approximate adder (WSAA)–based encryption logic. The scheme uses a 256-bit key for the encryption process that strengthens the encryption and robust against various attacks. The proposed encryption scheme deploys the WSAA for diffusing the pixel values. A unique way of key distribution for pixel-wise encryption within the image is proposed that avoids the need for separate logic for the pixel-wise confusion. The proposed Encryption scheme is evaluated for its entropy and horizontal, vertical, diagonal correlation, histogram, key space, and sensitivity. Experimental results affirm that the proposed scheme significantly good with less computational complexity. The peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) value of the decrypted image is infinity, and this matches the ideal requirement of the medical encryption scheme.