Abstract: The existing Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) based color information encryption system provided an optical matrix composition scheme, secure ciphertexts and very sensitive keys. As the Higher-order SVD (HOSVD) is a natural multi-linear extension of the matrix SVD, an HOSVD based color image encryption algorithm was proposed. In the encryption procedure, HOSVD can generate more multiplication orders of the ciphertexts (decomposition parts) than what SVD provides. These multiplication orders can be used as effective keys to make unauthorized decryption harder. In the decryption procedure, the reconstruction accuracy of HOSVD is higher than that of SVD. These advantages enhance the accuracy, security and robustness. Numerical simulations based on a test dataset of 100 images support the viability of the proposed algorithm.