6,676 research outputs found
Quantum Geo-Encryption
In this work we introduce the concept of quantum geo-encryption - a protocol
that invokes direct quantum encryption of messages coupled to quantum location
monitoring of the intended receiver. By obfuscating the quantum information
required by both the decrypting process and the location verification process,
a communication channel is created in which the encrypted data can only be
decrypted at a specific geographic locale. Classical wireless communications
can be invoked to unlock the quantum encryption process thereby allowing for
any deployment scenario regardless of the channel conditions. Quantum
geo-encryption can also be used to realize quantum-computing instructions that
can only be implemented at a specific location, and allow for a specified
geographical data-route through a distributed network. Here we consider the
operational aspects of quantum geo-encryption in generic Rician channels,
demonstrating that the likelihood of a successful spoofing attack approaches
zero as the adversary moves away from the allowed decrypting location. The work
introduced here resolves a long-standing quest to directly deliver information
which can only be decrypted at a given location free of assumptions on the
physical security of a receiver.Comment: 3 Figure
The Quantum Frontier
The success of the abstract model of computation, in terms of bits, logical
operations, programming language constructs, and the like, makes it easy to
forget that computation is a physical process. Our cherished notions of
computation and information are grounded in classical mechanics, but the
physics underlying our world is quantum. In the early 80s researchers began to
ask how computation would change if we adopted a quantum mechanical, instead of
a classical mechanical, view of computation. Slowly, a new picture of
computation arose, one that gave rise to a variety of faster algorithms, novel
cryptographic mechanisms, and alternative methods of communication. Small
quantum information processing devices have been built, and efforts are
underway to build larger ones. Even apart from the existence of these devices,
the quantum view on information processing has provided significant insight
into the nature of computation and information, and a deeper understanding of
the physics of our universe and its connections with computation.
We start by describing aspects of quantum mechanics that are at the heart of
a quantum view of information processing. We give our own idiosyncratic view of
a number of these topics in the hopes of correcting common misconceptions and
highlighting aspects that are often overlooked. A number of the phenomena
described were initially viewed as oddities of quantum mechanics. It was
quantum information processing, first quantum cryptography and then, more
dramatically, quantum computing, that turned the tables and showed that these
oddities could be put to practical effect. It is these application we describe
next. We conclude with a section describing some of the many questions left for
future work, especially the mysteries surrounding where the power of quantum
information ultimately comes from.Comment: Invited book chapter for Computation for Humanity - Information
Technology to Advance Society to be published by CRC Press. Concepts
clarified and style made more uniform in version 2. Many thanks to the
referees for their suggestions for improvement
Pseudo-Random Bit Generator Using Chaotic Seed for Cryptographic Algorithm in Data Protection of Electric Power Consumption
Cryptographic algorithms have played an important role in information security for protecting privacy. The literature provides evidence that many types of chaotic cryptosystems have been proposed. These chaotic systems encode information to obviate its orbital instability and ergodicity. In this work, a pseudo-random cryptographic generator algorithm with a symmetric key, based on chaotic functions, is proposed. Moreover, the algorithm exploits dynamic simplicity and synchronization to generate encryption sub-keys using unpredictable seeds, extracted from a chaotic zone, in order to increase their level of randomness. Also, it is applied to a simulated electrical energy consumption signal and implemented on a prototype, using low hardware resources, to measure physical variables; hence, the unpredictability degree was statistically analyzed using the resulting cryptogram. It is shown that the pseudo-random sequences produced by the cryptographic key generator have acceptable properties with respect to randomness, which are validated in this paper using National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) statistical tests. To complement the evaluation of the encrypted data, the Lena image is coded and its metrics are compared with those reported in the literature, yielding some useful results
Cloud-based Quadratic Optimization with Partially Homomorphic Encryption
The development of large-scale distributed control systems has led to the
outsourcing of costly computations to cloud-computing platforms, as well as to
concerns about privacy of the collected sensitive data. This paper develops a
cloud-based protocol for a quadratic optimization problem involving multiple
parties, each holding information it seeks to maintain private. The protocol is
based on the projected gradient ascent on the Lagrange dual problem and
exploits partially homomorphic encryption and secure multi-party computation
techniques. Using formal cryptographic definitions of indistinguishability, the
protocol is shown to achieve computational privacy, i.e., there is no
computationally efficient algorithm that any involved party can employ to
obtain private information beyond what can be inferred from the party's inputs
and outputs only. In order to reduce the communication complexity of the
proposed protocol, we introduced a variant that achieves this objective at the
expense of weaker privacy guarantees. We discuss in detail the computational
and communication complexity properties of both algorithms theoretically and
also through implementations. We conclude the paper with a discussion on
computational privacy and other notions of privacy such as the non-unique
retrieval of the private information from the protocol outputs
Systematizing Genome Privacy Research: A Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Perspective
Rapid advances in human genomics are enabling researchers to gain a better
understanding of the role of the genome in our health and well-being,
stimulating hope for more effective and cost efficient healthcare. However,
this also prompts a number of security and privacy concerns stemming from the
distinctive characteristics of genomic data. To address them, a new research
community has emerged and produced a large number of publications and
initiatives.
In this paper, we rely on a structured methodology to contextualize and
provide a critical analysis of the current knowledge on privacy-enhancing
technologies used for testing, storing, and sharing genomic data, using a
representative sample of the work published in the past decade. We identify and
discuss limitations, technical challenges, and issues faced by the community,
focusing in particular on those that are inherently tied to the nature of the
problem and are harder for the community alone to address. Finally, we report
on the importance and difficulty of the identified challenges based on an
online survey of genome data privacy expertsComment: To appear in the Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies
(PoPETs), Vol. 2019, Issue
Deterministic Chaos in Digital Cryptography
This thesis studies the application of deterministic chaos to digital
cryptography. Cryptographic systems such as pseudo-random generators
(PRNG), block ciphers and hash functions are regarded as a dynamic
system (X, j), where X is a state space (Le. message space)
and f : X -+ X is an iterated function. In both chaos theory and
cryptography, the object of study is a dynamic system that performs
an iterative nonlinear transformation of information in an apparently
unpredictable but deterministic manner. In terms of chaos theory, the
sensitivity to the initial conditions together with the mixing property
ensures cryptographic confusion (statistical independence) and diffusion
(uniform propagation of plaintext and key randomness into cihertext).
This synergetic relationship between the properties of chaotic and
cryptographic systems is considered at both the theoretical and practical
levels: The theoretical background upon which this relationship is
based, includes discussions on chaos, ergodicity, complexity, randomness,
unpredictability and entropy.
Two approaches to the finite-state implementation of chaotic systems
(Le. pseudo-chaos) are considered: (i) floating-point approximation of
continuous-state chaos; (ii) binary pseudo-chaos. An overview is given
of chaotic systems underpinning cryptographic algorithms along with
their strengths and weaknesses. Though all conventional cryposystems
are considered binary pseudo-chaos, neither chaos, nor pseudo-chaos are
sufficient to guarantee cryptographic strength and security.
A dynamic system is said to have an analytical solution Xn = (xo)
if any trajectory point Xn can be computed directly from the initial
conditions Xo, without performing n iterations. A chaotic system with an
analytical solution may have a unpredictable multi-valued map Xn+l =
f(xn). Their floating-point approximation is studied in the context of
pseudo-random generators.
A cryptographic software system E-Larm ™ implementing a multistream
pseudo-chaotic generator is described. Several pseudo-chaotic
systems including the logistic map, sine map, tangent- and logarithm feedback
maps, sawteeth and tent maps are evaluated by means of floating point
computations. Two types of partitioning are used to extract
pseudo-random from the floating-point state variable: (i) combining the
last significant bits of the floating-point number (for nonlinear maps);
and (ii) threshold partitioning (for piecewise linear maps). Multi-round
iterations are produced to decrease the bit dependence and increase non-linearity.
Relationships between pseudo-chaotic systems are introduced
to avoid short cycles (each system influences periodically the states of
other systems used in the encryption session).
An evaluation of cryptographic properties of E-Larm is given using
graphical plots such as state distributions, phase-space portraits, spectral
density Fourier transform, approximated entropy (APEN), cycle length
histogram, as well as a variety of statistical tests from the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) suite. Though E-Larm passes
all tests recommended by NIST, an approach based on the floating-point
approximation of chaos is inefficient in terms of the quality/performance
ratio (compared with existing PRNG algorithms). Also no solution is
known to control short cycles.
In conclusion, the role of chaos theory in cryptography is identified;
disadvantages of floating-point pseudo-chaos are emphasized although
binary pseudo-chaos is considered useful for cryptographic applications.Durand Technology Limite
Medical Images Encryption Based on Adaptive-Robust Multi-Mode Synchronization of Chen Hyper-Chaotic Systems
In this paper, a novel medical image encryption method based on multi-mode synchronization of hyper-chaotic systems is presented. The synchronization of hyper-chaotic systems is of
great significance in secure communication tasks such as encryption of images. Multi-mode synchronization is a novel and highly complex issue, especially if there is uncertainty and disturbance. In
this work, an adaptive-robust controller is designed for multimode synchronized chaotic systems
with variable and unknown parameters, despite the bounded disturbance and uncertainty with a
known function in two modes. In the first case, it is a main system with some response systems,
and in the second case, it is a circular synchronization. Using theorems it is proved that the two
synchronization methods are equivalent. Our results show that, we are able to obtain the convergence
of synchronization error and parameter estimation error to zero using Lyapunov’s method. The
new laws to update time-varying parameters, estimating disturbance and uncertainty bounds are
proposed such that stability of system is guaranteed. To assess the performance of the proposed
synchronization method, various statistical analyzes were carried out on the encrypted medical
images and standard benchmark images. The results show effective performance of the proposed
synchronization technique in the medical images encryption for telemedicine application.MINECO/ FEDER under the RTI2018-098913-B100
CV20-45250 and A-TIC- 080-UGR18 project
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