A Novel Data Encryption Method Using an Interlaced Chaotic Transform

We present a novel data encryption approach that utilizes a cascaded chaotic map application. The chaotic map used in both permutation and diffusion is Arnold's Cat Map (ACM), where the transformation is periodic and the encrypted data can be recovered. The original format of ACM is a two-dimensional mapping, and therefore it is suitable to randomize the pixel locations in an image. Since the values of pixels stay intact during the transformation, the process cannot encrypt an image, and known-text attacks can be used to get back the transformation matrix. The proposed approach uses ACM to shuffle the positions and values of two-dimensional data in an interlaced and nested process. This combination extends the period of the transformation, which is significantly longer than the period of the initial transformation. Furthermore, the nested process's possible combinations vastly expand the key space. At the same time, the interlaced pixel and value transformation makes the encryption highly resistant to any known-text attacks. The encrypted data passes all random-data tests proposed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Any type of data, including ASCII text, can be encrypted so long as it can be rearranged into a two-dimensional format.