Providing Integrity, Authenticity, and Confidentiality for Header and Pixel Data of DICOM Images

Abstract

Exchange of medical images over public networks is subjected to different types of security threats. This has triggered persisting demands for secured telemedicine implementations that will provide confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity for the transmitted images. The medical image exchange standard (DICOM) offers mechanisms to provide confidentiality

Crypto‐based algorithms for secured medical image transmission

“…The cause of the flaw is that the internally generated keys and initialisation vectors were sent in the DICOM header in clear (not encrypted). Therefore compared with the algorithms proposed in this paper, the algorithm reported in [42] achieves authentication and integrity of the header and pixel data of the DICOM images, whereas confidentiality is not achieved. The algorithm is compared with the DICOM standard and Kobayashi scheme in Table 3.…”

“…Finally, it is worthwhile mentioning that an attempt to achieve the three security services for DICOM images has been reported by one of the authors in a crypto-based algorithm in [42]. The algorithm relies on the three cryptographic functions which have been used in the two proposed algorithms.…”

“…Compared with the algorithms presented in this paper, the algorithm [42] offers a stronger bond between the different entities of the algorithm and requires less storage space in the DICOM header. However, a thorough analysis of the algorithm has revealed a serious security flaw that leads to a complete loss of confidentiality for both the header and pixel data.…”

Robust watermarking scheme and tamper detection based on threshold versus intensity

“…The security of computer field is provided with possibility techniques to cover these threats, like digital signature and watermarking techniques [1]. Watermarking techniques are applied in many fields in order to protect the content from unauthorized user [2], ensuring data integrity and authenticity [3], copyright proof [4] and data ownership [5]. The electronic data have to achieve security requirements.…”

Crypto-Watermarking of Transmitted Medical Images

“…Cryptography is the approach adopted in the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) standard which uses symmetric encryption, hashing functions, and digital signatures to provide integrity and authenticity [9][10][11]. However, a major limitation of pure cryptography is that the loss or deletion of the attached digital signature makes the image untrustworthy and thus it becomes hard to verify its integrity and authenticity.…”