Open Access

ARTICLE

Encryption Algorithm for Securing Non-Disclosure Agreements in Outsourcing Offshore Software Maintenance

by Atif Ikram^1,2,*, Masita Abdul Jalil¹, Amir Bin Ngah¹, Nadeem Iqbal², Nazri Kama⁴, Azri Azmi⁴, Ahmad Salman Khan³, Yasir Mahmood^3,4, Assad Alzayed⁵

1 Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
2 Department of Computer Science & Information Technology, Faculty of Information Technology, The University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
3 Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, The University of Lahore, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan
4 Advanced Informatics Department, Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 54100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5 Computer Science and Information Systems Department, College of Business Studies Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, (PAAET), Adailiya, Kuwait

* Corresponding Author: Atif Ikram. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2022, 73(2), 3827-3845. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2022.029609

Received 08 March 2022; Accepted 07 May 2022; Issue published 16 June 2022

Abstract

Properly created and securely communicated, non-disclosure agreement (NDA) can resolve most of the common disputes related to outsourcing of offshore software maintenance (OSMO). Occasionally, these NDAs are in the form of images. Since the work is done offshore, these agreements or images must be shared through the Internet or stored over the cloud. The breach of privacy, on the other hand, is a potential threat for the image owners as both the Internet and cloud servers are not void of danger. This article proposes a novel algorithm for securing the NDAs in the form of images. As an agreement is signed between the two parties, it will be encrypted before sending to the cloud server or travelling through the public network, the Internet. As the image is input to the algorithm, its pixels would be scrambled through the set of randomly generated rectangles for an arbitrary amount of time. The confusion effects have been realized through an XOR operation between the confused image, and chaotic data. Besides, 5D multi-wing hyperchaotic system has been employed to spawn the chaotic vectors due to good properties of chaoticity it has. The machine experimentation and the security analysis through a comprehensive set of validation metric vividly demonstrate the robustness, defiance to the multifarious threats and the prospects for some real-world application of the proposed encryption algorithm for the NDA images.

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Keywords

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