Routing Based on Security

Even though it is an essential requirement of any computer system, there is not yet a standard method to measure data security, especially when sending information over a network. However, the most common technique used to achieve the three goals of security is encryption. Three security metrics are derived from important issues of network security in this chapter. Each metric demonstrates the level of achievement in preserving one of the security goals. Routing algorithms based on these metrics are implemented to test the proposed solution. Computational effort and blocking probability are used to assess the behavior and the performance of these routing algorithms. Results show that the algorithms are able to find feasible paths between communicating parties and make reasonable savings in the computational effort needed to find an acceptable path. Consequently, higher blocking probabilities are encountered, which is the price to be paid for such savings.

New Developments in Quasigroup-Based Cryptography

This chapter offers an overview of new developments in quasigroup-based cryptography, especially of new defined quasigroup-based block ciphers and stream ciphers, hash functions and message authentication codes, PRNGs, public key cryptosystems, etc. Special attention is given to Multivariate Quadratic Quasigroups (MQQs) and MQQ public key schemes, because of their potential to become one of the most efficient pubic key algorithms today. There are also directions of using MQQs for building Zero knowledge ID-based identification schemes. Recent research activities show that some existing non-quasigroup block ciphers or their building blocks can be represented by quasigroup string transformations. There is a method for generating optimal 4x4 S-boxes by quasigroups of order 4, by which a more optimized hardware implementation of the given S-box can be obtained. Even some block ciphers' modes of operations can be represented by quasigroup string transformations, which leads to finding weaknesses in the interchanged use of these modes.

An Area-Efficient Composite Field Inverter for Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems

This chapter presents a new area-efficient composite field inverter of the form GF(q1) with q=2n.m suitable for the hardware realization of an elliptic curve (EC) cryptosystem. Considering both the security aspect and the hardware cost required, the authors propose the utilization of the composite field GF(((22)2)41) for EC cryptosystem. For efficient implementation, they have derived a compact inversion circuit over GF(2164)=GF(((22)2)41) to achieve an optimal saving in the hardware cost required. Furthermore, the authors have also developed a composite field digit serial Sunar-Koc multiplier for the multiplication in the extension field. All of the arithmetic operations in the subfield GF(24) are performed in its isomorphic composite field, GF((22)2), leading to a full combinatorial implementation without resorting to the conventional look-up table approach. To summarize the work, the final hardware implementation and the complexity analysis of the inversion is reported towards the end of this chapter.

Information Security-Based Nano- and Bio-Cryptography

Information security can provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability for society to benefit efficiently from data storage and open networks. Free space communication networks suffer from adversaries who interfere with data on networked computers. Inventing new protection techniques has arisen to ensure integrity and authenticity of digital information. This chapter introduces Nano and Bio techniques in cryptography to enhance the information security systems. Tasks unfeasible on a classical computer can now be performed by quantum computers, yielding a big impact on online security. Threats of exponentially fast quantum algorithms on business transactions could be overcome by this new technology. Based on biological observations, the exploration of biometric cryptography and authentication to determine individuals' authenticity can be done through numeric measurements. This provides very reliable automated verification and strong protection against biometric system attacks.

Multidisciplinary in Cryptology

To reach the high depths of knowledge and expertise that are required nowadays, scientists focus their attention on minute areas of study. However, the most complex problems faced by scientists still need the application of different disciplines to tackle them, which creates a necessity for multi-disciplinary collaboration. Cryptology is naturally a multidisciplinary field, drawing techniques from a wide range of disciplines and connections to many different subject areas. In recent years, the connection between algebra and cryptography has tightened, and established computational problems and techniques have been supplemented by interesting new approaches and ideas. Cryptographic engineering is a complicated, multidisciplinary field. It encompasses mathematics (algebra, finite groups, rings, and fields), probability and statistics, computer engineering (hardware design, ASIC, embedded systems, FPGAs), and computer science (algorithms, complexity theory, software design), control engineering, digital signal processing, physics, chemistry, and others. This chapter provides an introduction to the disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and their general structure (interdisciplinary, trans-disciplinary, and cross-disciplinary). And it also gives an introduction to the applications of the multidisciplinary approaches to some of the cryptology fields. In addition, the chapter provides some facts about the importance of the suitability and of the multidisciplinary approaches in different scientific, academic, and technical applications.

Influence of the Intra-Modal Facial Information for an Identification Approach

This chapter presents a comprehensive study on the influence of the intra-modal facial information for an identification approach. It was developed and implemented a biometric identification system by merging different intra-multimodal facial features: mouth, eyes, and nose. The Principal Component Analysis, Independent Component Analysis, and Discrete Cosine Transform were used as feature extractors. Support Vector Machines were implemented as classifier systems. The recognition rates obtained by multimodal fusion of three facial features has reached values above 97% in each of the databases used, confirming that the system is adaptive to images from different sources, sizes, lighting conditions, etc. Even though a good response has been shown when the three facial traits were merged, an acceptable performance has been shown when merging only two facial features. Therefore, the system is robust against problems in one isolate sensor or occlusion in any biometric trait. In this case, the success rate achieved was over 92%.

Chaos-Based Cryptography for Voice Secure Wireless Communication

Chaos theory was originally developed by mathematicians and physicists. The theory deals with the behaviors of nonlinear dynamic systems. Chaos theory has desirable features, such as deterministic, nonlinear, irregular, long-term prediction, and sensitivity to initial conditions. Therefore, and based on chaos theory features, the security research community adopts chaos theory in modern cryptography. However, there are challenges of using chaos theory with cryptography, and this chapter highlights some of those challenges. The voice information is very important compared with the information of image and text. This chapter reviews most of the encryption techniques that adopt chaos-based cryptography, and illustrates the uses of chaos-based voice encryption techniques in wireless communication as well. This chapter summarizes the traditional and modern techniques of voice/speech encryption and demonstrates the feasibility of adopting chaos-based cryptography in wireless communications.

Forensic Analysis, Cryptosystem Implementation, and Cryptology

The increasing portability of computing devices combined with frequent reports of privacy breaches and identity theft has thrust data encryption into the public attention. While encryption can help mitigate the threat of unintentional data exposure, it is equally capable of hiding evidence of criminal malfeasance. The increasing accessibility and usability of strong encryption solutions present new challenges for digital forensic investigators. Understanding forensic analysis as a multidisciplinary field that searches evidence of crime, the authors focus their topic on particularity of cross-disciplinary issues arising in this area: Forensic analysis uses cryptology, information technology and mathematics in extracting encryption keys from memory. The chapter highlights the virtues of volatile memory analysis by demonstrating how key material and passphrases can be extracted from memory and reconstructed to facilitate the analysis of encrypted data. The authors show current methods for identifying encryption keys in memory and discuss possible defeating techniques and cryptosystem implementation strategies that could be used to avoid the key extraction.

Biometrics

It is important to know that absolute security does not exist, and the main goal of the security system is to reach an optimal approach that satisfies the customer requirements. Biometrics is a small part of the security system that aims to replace a traditional password or a key. Biometrics offer higher security levels by simply ensuring that only the authorized people have access to sensitive data. It is easy to copy or get a traditional password using different methods (legal or illegal), but it is difficult to copy a key of biometric pattern such as iris or fingerprint or other patterns. Recent years have seen a boom in the use of biometric techniques in the design of modern equipment to maintain the information and personal identification. This chapter focuses on biometrics (types and technologies), personal identification, and specifications, and then how to implement these performances in security. Finally, a future aspect of merging technologies and disciplines is a good issue to treat via a specific concentration of information technology. In this chapter, two approached are proposed: a novel thinning algorithm for fingerprint recognition and a novel e-passport based on personal identification.

RSA-Public Key Cryptosystems Based on Quadratic Equations in Finite Field

The importance of Public Key Cryptosystems (PKCs) in the cryptography field is well known. They represent a great revolution in this field. The PKCs depend mainly on mathematical problems, like factorization problem, and a trapdoor one-way function problem. Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA) PKC systems are based on factorization mathematical problems. There are many types of RSA cryptosystems. Rabin's Cryptosystem is considered one example of this type, which is based on using the square order (quadratic equation) in encryption function. Many cryptosystems (since 1978) were implemented under such a mathematical approach. This chapter provides an illustration of the variants of RSA-Public Key Cryptosystems based on quadratic equations in Finite Field, describing their key generation, encryption, and decryption processes. In addition, the chapter illustrates a proposed general formula for the equation describing these different types and a proposed generalization for the Chinese Remainder Theorem.