Implementation of Improved AES Image Encryption in VB.NET

Due to the increasing use of images in industrial process, financial institutions, medical and military application, there is every need to achieve secure transmission and storage of digital images. Various methods have been investigated and developed to protect image data for personal privacy and encryption is probably the most obvious solution. This work presents an improvement on the existing Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Algorithm by implementing it on VB.NET framework. Encryption time of AES was considered to be very long, especially when processing images using encryption key. Therefore, eliminating the use of encryption key will lead to reduced encryption time. Finally, comparisons made of the Improved AES Algorithm with the latest successful Algorithms in image encryption indicates that the Algorithms of Gamil and Pareek encrypts a Kilobyte of image at an average encryption time of 0.7 milliseconds and the average encryption time of the Improved AES is 0.3 milliseconds. This shows that the improvement has been successful.