{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,8]],"date-time":"2026-03-08T23:18:54Z","timestamp":1773011934014,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]],"date-time":"2022-03-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648080000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Standard methods used in the encryption and decryption process are implemented to protect confidential data. These methods require many arithmetic and logical operations that negatively affect the performance of the encryption process. In addition, they use private keys of a specific length, in addition to the fixed length of the data block used in encryption, which may provide the possibility of penetration of these methods, thus decreasing the level of security. In this research paper, a new method of digital image cryptography is introduced. This method is based on using a color image as an image_key to generate a sophisticated matrix private key (MPK) that cannot be hacked. The proposed method uses an initial state to set the required parameters, with secret information needed to generate the private key. The data-block size is variable, and the complicity of the MPK depends on the number of selected rounds and the data-block size. The proposed method is appropriate for publication in Symmetry because it employs a symmetrical complex matrix key to encrypt and decrypt digital images. The proposed method is simple yet very efficient in terms of throughput and scalability. The experiments show that the proposed method meets the quality requirements and can speed up the encryption\u2013decryption process compared with standard methods, including DES, 3DES, AES, and Blowfish.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym14040664","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]],"date-time":"2022-03-24T23:31:43Z","timestamp":1648164703000},"page":"664","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["A Complex Matrix Private Key to Enhance the Security Level of Image Cryptography"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2489-4857","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mua\u2019ad","family":"Abu-Faraj","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information Systems, The University of Jordan, Aqaba 77110, Jordan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0295-9691","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abeer","family":"Al-Hyari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electrical Engineering Department, Al-Balqa Applied University, As Salt 19117, Jordan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ziad","family":"Alqadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computers and Networks Engineering Department, Al-Balqa Applied University, Amman 15008, Jordan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"50","article-title":"Creating a Stable and Fixed Features Array for Digital Color Image","volume":"8","author":"Asad","year":"2019","journal-title":"IJCSMC"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4092","DOI":"10.11591\/ijece.v9i5.pp4092-4098","article-title":"A new method for voice signal features creation","volume":"9","author":"Hendi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Electr. Comput. Eng. (IJECE)"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mandal, A.K., Parakash, C., and Tiwari, A. (2012, January 1\u20132). Performance evaluation of cryptographic algorithms: DES and AES. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Students\u2019 Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science Innovation for Humanity, Bhopal, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/SCEECS.2012.6184991"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"399","DOI":"10.1109\/ICECTECH.2011.5942029","article-title":"Performance analysis of data encryption algorithms","volume":"Volume 5","author":"Verma","year":"2011","journal-title":"Proceedings of the 2011 3rd International Conference on Electronics Computer Technology"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Asok, S.B., Karthigaikumar, P., Sandhya, R., Jarold, K.N., and Mangai, N.S. (2013, January 3\u20135). A secure cryptographic scheme for audio signals. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing, Melmaruvathur, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/iccsp.2013.6577156"},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"79","article-title":"Encryption of an audio file on lower frequency band for secure communication","volume":"3","author":"Sharma","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Sci. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"184","article-title":"Steganography\u2014A Sin qua non for Diguised Communication","volume":"1","author":"Gandhi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Innov. Res. Adv. Eng."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"James, S.P., George, S.N., and Deepthi, P. (2013, January 4\u20136). Secure selective encryption of compressed audio. Proceedings of the 2013 Annual International Conference on Emerging Research Areas and 2013 International Conference on Microelectronics, Communications and Renewable Energy, Kanjirapally, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/AICERA-ICMiCR.2013.6575954"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Babu, S.G., and Ilango, P. (2013, January 16\u201319). Higher dimensional chaos for Audio encryption. Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Cyber Security (CICS), Singapore."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Aathithan, N.R., and Venkatesulu, M. (2013, January 7\u20139). A complete binary tree structure block cipher for real-time multimedia. Proceedings of the 2013 Science and Information Conference, London, UK."},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"1574","article-title":"Throughput analysis of symmetric algorithms","volume":"4","author":"Pavithra","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Netw. Appl."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"216","article-title":"Evaluating The Performance of Symmetric Encryption Algorithms","volume":"10","author":"Hadhoud","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Netw. Secur."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"177","article-title":"Comparative analysis of AES and RC4 algorithms for better utilization","volume":"2","author":"Singhal","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Trends Technol."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"658","article-title":"A study on different approaches of selective encryption technique","volume":"2","author":"Sharma","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Sci. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"33","article-title":"Simple Encryption\/Decryption Application","volume":"1","author":"Hui","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Sci. Secur."},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"28","article-title":"Comparative study of different encryption techniques on MP3 compression","volume":"26","author":"Gadanayak","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Appl."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"1","article-title":"Power spectrum encryption and decryption of an audio file","volume":"1","author":"Sharma","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Res. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"James, S.P., George, S.N., and Deepthi, P. (2014, January 6\u20137). An audio encryption technique based on LFSR based alternating step generator. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Computing and Communication Technologies (CONECCT), Bangalore, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/CONECCT.2014.6740185"},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"78","article-title":"Evaluating the Effects of Symmetric Cryptography Algorithms on Power Consumption for Different Data Types","volume":"11","author":"Minaam","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Netw. Secur."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"62","article-title":"A Novel Approach to Blowfish Encryption Algorithm","volume":"1","author":"Kumar","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Found. Res. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rizvi, S., Hussain, S.Z., and Wadhwa, N. (2011, January 3\u20135). Performance analysis of AES and TwoFish encryption schemes. Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies, Jammu, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSNT.2011.160"},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"150","article-title":"Image encryption and decryption using blowfish algorithm in MATLAB","volume":"4","author":"Singh","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Sci. Eng. Res."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Mhaidat, K., Altahat, M., and Al-Khaleel, O. (2013, January 23\u201325). High-Throughput Hardware Implementation of Threefish Block Cipher on FPGA. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Information & Communication Systems (iCICS), Iribd, Jordan."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"472","article-title":"Efficient audio encryption algorithm for online applications using transposition and multiplicative non-binary system","volume":"2","author":"Raghunandhan","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol. (IJERT)"}],"container-title":["Symmetry"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-8994\/14\/4\/664\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:42:17Z","timestamp":1760136137000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-8994\/14\/4\/664"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]]},"references-count":24,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]}},"alternative-id":["sym14040664"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/sym14040664","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-8994"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2073-8994","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,24]]}}}