590 research outputs found
Computational and Energy Costs of Cryptographic Algorithms on Handheld Devices
Networks are evolving toward a ubiquitous model in which heterogeneous
devices are interconnected. Cryptographic algorithms are required for developing security
solutions that protect network activity. However, the computational and energy limitations
of network devices jeopardize the actual implementation of such mechanisms. In this
paper, we perform a wide analysis on the expenses of launching symmetric and asymmetric
cryptographic algorithms, hash chain functions, elliptic curves cryptography and pairing
based cryptography on personal agendas, and compare them with the costs of basic operating
system functions. Results show that although cryptographic power costs are high and such
operations shall be restricted in time, they are not the main limiting factor of the autonomy
of a device
Towards Designing Energy Efficient Symmetric Key Protocols
Energy consumption by various modern symmetric key encryption protocols (DES,
3-DES, AES and, Blowfish) is studied from an algorithmic perspective. The work
is directed towards redesigning or modifying the underlying algorithms for these
protocols to make them consume less energy than they currently do. This research
takes the approach of reducing energy consumption by parallelizing the
consecutive memory accesses of symmetric key encryption algorithms. To achieve
parallelization, an existing energy complexity model is applied to symmetric key
encryption algorithms. Inspired by the popular DDR3 architecture, the model assumes
that main memory is divided into multiple banks, each of which can store
multiple blocks. Each block in a bank can only be accessed from a cache of its
own, that can hold exactly one block. However all the caches from different banks
can be accessed simultaneously. In this research, experiments are conducted to
measure the difference in energy consumption by varying the level of parallelization,
i.e. variations of, number of banks that can be accessed in parallel. The
experimental results show that the higher the level of parallelism, smaller is the
energy consumption
Cryptography for Ultra-Low Power Devices
Ubiquitous computing describes the notion that computing devices will be everywhere: clothing, walls and floors of buildings, cars, forests, deserts, etc. Ubiquitous computing is becoming a reality: RFIDs are currently being introduced into the supply chain. Wireless distributed sensor networks (WSN) are already being used to monitor wildlife and to track military targets. Many more applications are being envisioned. For most of these applications some level of security is of utmost importance. Common to WSN and RFIDs are their severely limited power resources, which classify them as ultra-low power devices. Early sensor nodes used simple 8-bit microprocessors to implement basic communication, sensing and computing services. Security was an afterthought. The main power consumer is the RF-transceiver, or radio for short. In the past years specialized hardware for low-data rate and low-power radios has been developed. The new bottleneck are security services which employ computationally intensive cryptographic operations. Customized hardware implementations hold the promise of enabling security for severely power constrained devices. Most research groups are concerned with developing secure wireless communication protocols, others with designing efficient software implementations of cryptographic algorithms. There has not been a comprehensive study on hardware implementations of cryptographic algorithms tailored for ultra-low power applications. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a suite of cryptographic functions for authentication, encryption and integrity that is specifically fashioned to the needs of ultra-low power devices. This dissertation gives an introduction to the specific problems that security engineers face when they try to solve the seemingly contradictory challenge of providing lightweight cryptographic services that can perform on ultra-low power devices and shows an overview of our current work and its future direction
Energy Efficient Security Framework for Wireless Local Area Networks
Wireless networks are susceptible to network attacks due to their inherentvulnerabilities. The radio signal used in wireless transmission canarbitrarily propagate through walls and windows; thus a wireless networkperimeter is not exactly known. This leads them to be more vulnerable toattacks such as eavesdropping, message interception and modifications comparedto wired-line networks. Security services have been used as countermeasures toprevent such attacks, but they are used at the expense of resources that arescarce especially, where wireless devices have a very limited power budget.Hence, there is a need to provide security services that are energy efficient.In this dissertation, we propose an energy efficient security framework. Theframework aims at providing security services that take into account energyconsumption. We suggest three approaches to reduce the energy consumption ofsecurity protocols: replacement of standard security protocol primitives thatconsume high energy while maintaining the same security level, modification ofstandard security protocols appropriately, and a totally new design ofsecurity protocol where energy efficiency is the main focus. From ourobservation and study, we hypothesize that a higher level of energy savings isachievable if security services are provided in an adjustable manner. Wepropose an example tunable security or TuneSec system, which allows areasonably fine-grained security tuning to provide security services at thewireless link level in an adjustable manner.We apply the framework to several standard security protocols in wirelesslocal area networks and also evaluate their energy consumption performance.The first and second methods show improvements of up to 70% and 57% inenergy consumption compared to plain standard security protocols,respectively. The standard protocols can only offer fixed-level securityservices, and the methods applied do not change the security level. The thirdmethod shows further improvement compared to fixed-level security by reducing(about 6% to 40%) the energy consumed. This amount of energy saving can bevaried depending on the configuration and security requirements
Comparison of Hardware and Software Based Encryption for Secure Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks
International audienceThis paper deals with the energy efficient issue of cryptographic mechanisms used for secure communication between devices in wireless sensor networks. Since these devices are mainly targeted for low power consumption appliances, there is an effort for optimization of any aspects needed for regular sensor operation. On a basis of utilization of hardware cryptographic accelerators integrated in microcontrollers, this article provides the comparison between software and hardware solutions. Proposed work examines the problems and solutions for implementation of security algorithms for WSN devices. Because the speed of hardware accelerator should be much higher than the software implementation, there are examination tests of energy consumption and validation of performance of this feature. Main contribution of the article is real testbed evaluation of the time latency and energy requirements needed for securing the communication. In addition, global evaluation for all important network communication parameters like throughput, delay and delivery ratio are also provided
A Review of the Teaching and Learning on Power Electronics Course
—In this review, we describe various kinds of problem and solution related teaching and learning on power electronics course all around the world. The method was used the study of literature on journal articles and proceedings published by reputable international organizations. Thirtynine papers were obtained using Boolean operators, according to the specified criteria. The results of the problems generally established that student learning motivation was low, teaching approaches that are still teacher-centered, the scope of the curriculum extends, and the physical limitations of laboratory equipment. The solutions offered are very diverse ranging from models, strategies, methods and learning techniques supported by information and communication technology
Security of Ubiquitous Computing Systems
The chapters in this open access book arise out of the EU Cost Action project Cryptacus, the objective of which was to improve and adapt existent cryptanalysis methodologies and tools to the ubiquitous computing framework. The cryptanalysis implemented lies along four axes: cryptographic models, cryptanalysis of building blocks, hardware and software security engineering, and security assessment of real-world systems. The authors are top-class researchers in security and cryptography, and the contributions are of value to researchers and practitioners in these domains. This book is open access under a CC BY license
Redesigning and Expanding WPI’s Summer STEM Programs for Middle School Girls
The underrepresentation of females in STEM fields limits innovation. The purpose of this project was to develop resources for the Office of Pre-Collegiate Outreach Programs at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to aid them in their expansion of summer STEM programs, increasing opportunities for middle school girls to get involved as well as increasing female engagement in STEM. We analyzed the effectiveness of previous activities and developed 25 modules as frameworks for designing effective STEM outreach programs for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls
Enhancement of bluetooth security authentication using hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) algorithm
Recently, Bluetooth technology is widely used by
organizations and individuals to provide wireless personal area
network (WPAN). This is because the radio frequency (RF)
waves can easily penetrate obstacles and can propagate without
direct line-of-sight (LoS). These two characteristics have led to
replace wired communication by wireless systems. However,
there are serious security challenges associated with wireless
communication systems because they are easier to eavesdrop,
disrupt and jam than the wired systems. Bluetooth technology
started with a form of pairing called legacy pairing prior to any
communication. However, due to the serious security issues found
in the legacy pairing, a secure and simple pairing called SPP was
announced with Bluetooth 2.1 and later since 2007. SPP has
solved the main security issue which is the weaknesses of the PIN
code in the legacy pairing, however it has been found with some
vulnerabilities such as eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle
(MITM) attacks. Since the discovery of these vulnerabilities,
some enhancements have been proposed to the Bluetooth
Specification Interest Group (SIG) which is the regulatory body
of Bluetooth technology; nevertheless, some proposed
enhancements are ineffective or are not yet implemented by
Manufacturers. Therefore, an improvement of the security
authentication in Bluetooth connection is highly required to
overcome the existing drawbacks. This proposed protocol uses
Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) algorithm
with Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-256). The implementation of
this proposal is based on the Arduino Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) as software and a Bluetooth (BT) Shield
connected to an Arduino Uno R3 boards as hardware. The result
was verified on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) built in
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 with C sharp as default
environment. It has shown that the proposed scheme works
perfectly with the used hardware and software. In addition, the
protocol thwarts the passive and active eavesdropping attacks
which exist during SSP. These attacks are defeated by avoiding
the exchange of passwords and public keys in plain text between
the Master and the Slave. Therefore, this protocol is expected to
be implemented by the SIG to enhance the security in Bluetooth
connection
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