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Applied Physics B

A comprehensive review on evolution of optical information security techniques

Raman Yadav, Harsh Vardhan, Aswathi K Sivarajan, Praveen Kumar, Sakshi Choudhary, Phool Singh, Gangi Reddy Salla, Sachin, Ravi Kumar

Published Sep 2, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

With the exponential growth of digital communication channels, the transmission and storage of high-dimensional multimedia data, including images and videos, have become crucial to modern information systems. The areas like defense, healthcare and banking utilize the modern communication channels very often to share information. Thus, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of sensitive visual information has become a critical challenge. Although there are various conventional data security algorithms that exist, they often encounter limitations in handling large-scale image data due to high computational complexity and slow processing speed. Optical cryptosystems have emerged as a promising alternative owing to their inherent parallelism, multidimensional processing capability, large key space, and high-speed implementation. In this review, recent advancements in optical cryptosystems beyond classical DRPE scheme are summarized. Particularly, we examine the asymmetric optical cryptosystems based on PTFT, QZ decomposition, QZ synthesis, SVD, GSVD, interference, and computer-generated holography. Moreover, this review also discussed the emerging approaches of optical data security using structured light beams such as vector vortex beams. Finally, the review covered various techniques to test the vulnerabilities of optical cryptosystems such as plaintext and modified plaintext attacks, AI based cryptographic attacks, and iterative attacks designed for asymmetric cryptosystems. The objective of this review article is to serve as a reference text for readers from a variety of research backgrounds interested in the domain of optical information security.

DOI
10.1007/s00340-026-08713-1

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With the exponential growth of digital communication channels, the transmission and storage of high-dimensional multimedia data, including images and videos, have become crucial to modern information systems. The areas like defense, healthcare and banking utilize the modern communication channels very often to share information. Thus, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of sensitive visual information has become a critical challenge. Although there are various conventional data security algorithms that exist, they often encounter limitations in handling large-scale image data due to high computational complexity and slow processing speed. Optical cryptosystems have emerged as a promising alternative owing to their inherent parallelism, multidimensional processing capability, large key space, and high-speed implementation. In this review, recent advancements in optical cryptosystems beyond classical DRPE scheme are summarized. Particularly, we examine the asymmetric optical cryptosystems based on PTFT, QZ decomposition, QZ synthesis, SVD, GSVD, interference, and computer-generated holography. Moreover, this review also discussed the emerging approaches of optical data security using structured light beams such as vector vortex beams. Finally, the review covered various techniques to test the vulnerabilities of optical cryptosystems such as plaintext and modified plaintext attacks, AI based cryptographic attacks, and iterative attacks designed for asymmetric cryptosystems. The objective of this review article is to serve as a reference text for readers from a variety of research backgrounds interested in the domain of optical information security.
In the modern era, the secure transmission and storage of information are among the utmost priorities. Optical security protocols have demonstrated significant advantages over digital counterparts, i.e., a high speed, a complex degree of freedom, physical parameters as keys (i.e., phase, wavelength, polarization, quantum properties of photons, multiplexing, etc.) and multi-dimension processing capabilities. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of optical cryptosystems developed over the years. We have also analyzed the trend in the growth of optical image encryption methods since their inception in 1995 based on the data collected from various literature libraries such as Google Scholar, IEEE Library and Science Direct Database. The security algorithms developed in the literature are focused on two major aspects, i.e., symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems. A summary of state-of-the-art works is described based on these two aspects. Current challenges and future perspectives of the field are also discussed.
Abstract Information security and authentication are important challenges facing society. Recent attacks by hackers on the databases of large commercial and financial companies have demonstrated that more research and development of advanced approaches are necessary to deny unauthorized access to critical data. Free space optical technology has been investigated by many researchers in information security, encryption, and authentication. The main motivation for using optics and photonics for information security is that optical waveforms possess many complex degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, large bandwidth, nonlinear transformations, quantum properties of photons, and multiplexing that can be combined in many ways to make information encryption more secure and more difficult to attack. This roadmap article presents an overview of the potential, recent advances, and challenges of optical security and encryption using free space optics. The roadmap on optical security is comprised of six categories that together include 16 short sections written by authors who have made relevant contributions in this field. The first category of this roadmap describes novel encryption approaches, including secure optical sensing which summarizes double random phase encryption applications and flaws [Yamaguchi], the digital holographic encryption in free space optical technique which describes encryption using multidimensional digital holography [Nomura], simultaneous encryption of multiple signals [Pérez-Cabré], asymmetric methods based on information truncation [Nishchal], and dynamic encryption of video sequences [Torroba]. Asymmetric and one-way cryptosystems are analyzed by Peng. The second category is on compression for encryption. In their respective contributions, Alfalou and Stern propose similar goals involving compressed data and compressive sensing encryption. The very important area of cryptanalysis is the topic of the third category with two sections: Sheridan reviews phase retrieval algorithms to perform different attacks, whereas Situ discusses nonlinear optical encryption techniques and the development of a rigorous optical information security theory. The fourth category with two contributions reports how encryption could be implemented at the nano- or micro-scale. Naruse discusses the use of nanostructures in security applications and Carnicer proposes encoding information in a tightly focused beam. In the fifth category, encryption based on ghost imaging using single-pixel detectors is also considered. In particular, the authors [Chen, Tajahuerce] emphasize the need for more specialized hardware and image processing algorithms. Finally, in the sixth category, Mosk and Javidi analyze in their corresponding papers how quantum imaging can benefit optical encryption systems. Sources that use few photons make encryption systems much more difficult to attack, providing a secure method for authentication.
Optical information security techniques are developed at a fast pace over the past two decades. In the present scenario, where enormous amount of data is being exchanged, information security plays an important role in protecting the information/data from unauthorized use/access. In this context, securing information using optical means has become relevant, given the suitable features of speed and multiple degrees of freedom that optical cryptosystems offer. Asymmetric cryptosystems have been introduced as an upgrade over the conventional double random phase encoding technique and they show resistance towards the known-plaintext attack. This paper reviews the symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems and their attack analysis.
Quantum image encryption (QIE) has emerged as a promising solution for securing digital data in an era dominated by rapid advancements in quantum computing and increasing cyber threats. Traditional cryptographic techniques, which rely on classical encryption methods, are vulnerable to the computational power of quantum algorithms, posing significant challenges for maintaining data privacy and integrity. This survey presents a thorough review of quantum encryption techniques, highlighting both their limitations and advantages, with a particular emphasis on their ability to ensure secure visual data transmission in the post-quantum era. Additionally, it provides a comparative analysis of classical and quantum cryptographic techniques, with a primary focus on quantum encryption methods. The survey also explores potential solutions to address the challenges inherent in classical encryption schemes, highlighting how these challenges can be mitigated through quantum encryption approaches. As quantum computing continues to evolve, the need for quantum-secure encryption methods becomes more critical. This survey not only highlights the innovative techniques that show promise for future secure visual data transmission but also identifies key areas for future research and development, paving the way for robust and scalable solutions in the quantum computing era.
Abstract Optical encryption techniques in over the last 10 years have become more important in the area of optical information processing. Several applications, including online payments, medical or biometric image storage or transmission, private military applications, police identification techniques, online banking platforms, governmental services, identity (ID) cards, etc., are only a few examples. Require special and reliable security in the transmission and storage of images. Since digital picture information may be readily accessed by hackers via transmission over the Internet or other communication channels, the issue of photos with unlawful usage is becoming more and more severe. A more effective and secure means of communicating images may be offered via optical encryption. The encryption mechanism and keys are needed at the receiver side in order to decrypt the original optical data. Picture security becomes a highly important subject in communication science as a result of network growth and rising need for image transmission. There are several security issues with picture data, including forgery detection and illegal access. The most straightforward method of picture protection is to encrypt it as text. The traditional text encryption algorithms are inappropriate for picture encryption because of the high correlation present in image data. Over the last two decades, a number of optical approaches have been proposed for photo encryption, with the specific advantage of processing two-dimensional (2D) image data in parallel conduction mode. Therefore, we are doing an extensive investigation on optical image encryption in this work.
Information security has attracted much current attention due to the rapid development of modern technologies, such as computer and internet. We propose a novel method for optical image encryption using multilevel Arnold transform and rotatable-phase-mask noninterferometric imaging. An optical image encryption scheme is developed in the gyrator transform domain, and one phase-only mask (i.e., phase grating) is rotated and updated during image encryption. For the decryption, an iterative retrieval algorithm is proposed to extract high-quality plaintexts. Conventional encoding methods (such as digital holography) have been proven vulnerably to the attacks, and the proposed optical encoding scheme can effectively eliminate security deficiency and significantly enhance cryptosystem security. The proposed strategy based on the rotatable phase-only mask can provide a new alternative for data/image encryption in the noninterferometric imaging.