Efficient S-box construction based on quantum-inspired quantum walks with PSO algorithm and its application to image cryptosystem.

Amidst the growth of the internet and communication technologies, the requirements for the security of data transmitted via these technologies are increasing. Visual data, like images and videos, are commonly utilized for representing the majority of data due to its having more detailed information. Until now, the physical implementation of quantum computers does not have enough capability for hacking any traditional image cryptosystem, but amidst the growth of quantum resources, enough capability may be available in the near future. Most data represented by images has a long lifetime, like personal, medical, military, etc. Therefore, new quantum-inspired-based designs for image cryptosystems are required to be performed on digital resources and have the capability of defying the potential attacks from digital and quantum resources. In this study, a new substitution box (S-box) mechanism is proposed, which is based on quantum-inspired quantum walks, Hénon map, and a customized particle swarm optimization algorithm. Performance analysis of the suggested S-box proves its effectiveness and its reliability in designing various cryptosystems. Based on the effectiveness of the presented S-box, a new image cryptosystem is proposed, in which its experiential outcomes prove its efficacy and security against various attacks. The average outcome of entropy is 7.99977, UACI is 33.484%, NPCR is 99.618%, and Chi-square is 249.481 for the constructed cipher images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]