Search

Low-resource utilization and high-energy consumption have become progressively protuberant issues in cloud data centers. Virtual Machine (VM) migration is the key objective to resolve this issue. Moreover, extreme VM migration might empower Service-Level Agreement (SLA) violations. Few works are considered for optimizing throughput and energy consumption. An efficient VM migration must consider different parameters like network communication overhead, migration overhead, resource utilization, energy consumption and quality of service which is a multi-objective issue. Hence, in this paper, a Modified Pelican Optimization-based Variable Load Mean Function (MPO-VLMF)-based host overload detection is presented and security enhancement is developed. The main motive of this study is to achieve host overload detection and security enhancement. To obtain host overload detection, the variable load mean function is developed. In this mean function, the weight parameter is selected by considering Modified Pelican Optimization (MPO). The Levy flight (LF) is considered for enhancing the updating process of Pelican Optimization (PO). To enhance the security of the system, the Digital Signature-based Encryption (DSE) is developed. Based on this proposed approach, security and host overload detection are obtained. The proposed technique is implemented and evaluated by performance measures. It is compared with the conventional approaches to justify the performance of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, wireless body area network (WBAN) becomes a hot research topic in the advanced healthcare system. The WBAN plays a vital role in monitoring the physiological parameters of the human body with sensors. The sensors are small in size, and it has a small-sized battery with limited life. Hence, the energy is limited in the multi-hop routing process. The patient data is collected by the sensor, and the data are transmitted with high energy consumption. It causes failure in the data transmission path. To avoid this, the data transmission process should be optimized. This paper presents an advanced authentication and energy-efficient routing protocol (AAERP) for optimal routing paths in WBAN. Patients' data are aggregated from the WBAN through the IoMT devices in the initial stage. To secure the patient's private data, a hybrid mechanism of the elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC) and Paillier cryptosystem is proposed for the data encryption process. Data security is improved by authenticating the data before transmission using an encryption algorithm. Before the routing process, the data encryption approach converts the original plain text data into ciphertext data. This encryption approach assists in avoiding intrusions in the network system. The encrypted data are optimally routed with the help of the teamwork optimization algorithm (TOA) approach. The optimal path selection using this optimization technique improves the effectiveness and robustness of the system. The experimental setup is performed by using Python software. The efficacy of the proposed model is evaluated by solving parameters like network lifetime, network throughput, residual energy, success rate, number of packets received, number of packets sent, and number of packets dropped. The performance of the proposed model is measured by comparing the obtained results with several existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now more crucial than ever to provide data security, as the goals and capabilities of eavesdroppers are constantly changing. Therefore, different developers are creating cipher systems that employ various innovative techniques. Standard ciphers, such as DES and AES, use substitution boxes to ensure secure encryption and decryption of data. The substitution box (S-box) is a core module used in modern ciphers to secure data. This study introduces an efficient and straightforward method that leverages a Residue Number System (RNS) to construct an S-box. Furthermore, the AES algorithm uses the generated S-box to encrypt digital images. Parameters such as entropy, NPCR, and UACI effectively measure the security of the proposed method. The results of the performance and comparison study confirm that the proposed S-box outperforms existing methods, establishing it as a strong candidate for cryptographic use in various image security applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's globalized agricultural system, information leakage of agricultural biological risk factors can lead to business risks and public panic, jeopardizing corporate reputation. To solve the above problems, this study constructs a blockchain network for agricultural product biological risk traceability based on agricultural product biological risk factor data to achieve traceability of biological risk traceability data of agricultural product supply chain to meet the sustainability challenges. To guarantee the secure and flexible sharing of agricultural product biological risk privacy information and limit the scope of privacy information dissemination, the blockchain-based proxy re-encryption access control method (BBPR-AC) is designed. Aiming at the problems of proxy re-encryption technology, such as the third-party agent being prone to evil, the authorization judgment being cumbersome, and the authorization process not automated, we design the proxy re-encryption access control mechanism based on the traceability of agricultural products' biological risk factors. Designing an attribute-based access control (ABAC) mechanism based on the traceability blockchain for agricultural products involves defining the attributes of each link in the agricultural supply chain, formulating policies, and evaluating and executing these policies, deployed in the blockchain system in the form of smart contracts. This approach achieves decentralization of authorization and automation of authority judgment. By analyzing the data characteristics within the agricultural product supply chain to avoid the malicious behavior of third-party agents, the decentralized blockchain system acts as a trusted third-party agent, and the proxy re-encryption is combined with symmetric encryption to improve the encryption efficiency. This ensures a efficient encryption process, making the system safe, transparent, and efficient. Finally, a prototype blockchain system for traceability of agricultural biological risk factors is built based on Hyperledger Fabric to verify this research method's reliability, security, and efficiency. The experimental results show that this research scheme's initial encryption, re-encryption, and decryption sessions exhibit lower computational overheads than traditional encryption methods. When the number of policies and the number of requests in the access control session is 100, the policy query latency is less than 400 ms, the request-response latency is slightly more than 360ms, and the data uploading throughput is 48.7 tx/s. The data query throughput is 81.8 tx/s, the system performance consumption is low and can meet the biological risk privacy protection needs of the agricultural supply chain. The BBPR-AC method proposed in this study provides ideas for achieving refined traceability management in the agricultural supply chain and promoting digital transformation in the agricultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, social networks have become an indispensable medium in people's daily life and work. However, concerns about personal privacy leakage and identity information theft have also emerged. Therefore, a communication network system based on network slicing is constructed to strengthen the protection of communication network privacy. The chameleon hash algorithm is used to optimize attribute-based encryption and enhance the privacy protection of communication networks. On the basis of optimizing the combination of attribute encryption and homomorphic encryption,, a communication network privacy protection method using homomorphic encryption for network slicing and attribute is designed. The results show that the designed network energy consumption is low, the average energy consumption calculation is reduced by 8.69%, and the average energy consumption calculation is reduced by 14.3%. During data transmission, the throughput of the designed network can reach about 700 Mbps at each stage, which has a high efficiency.. The above results demonstrate that the designed communication network provides effective privacy protection. Encrypted data can be decrypted and tracked in the event of any security incident. This is to protect user privacy and provide strong technical support for communication network security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edge computing serves as a critical intermediary for secure data exchange between IoT devices and data centres in healthcare, where the protection of sensitive patient data is paramount. This study presents UdesMec, a comprehensive edge computing framework designed for efficient and secure data storage and processing in such contexts. Focusing on the challenge of implementing robust data security models in the presence of limited resources at edge nodes, UdesMec employs a unified encryption approach that is particularly suited for expert knowledge-based prediction of complex critical medical events. Using secret sharing and homomorphic encryption, it ensures the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive patient data transmitted by IoT devices, while enabling efficient computation of prediction algorithms on a cloud server. The experimental evaluation confirms the strong encryption performance and the ease of use of UdesMec, positioning it as a promising solution for the secure and reliable prediction of complex critical medical events in healthcare systems based on edge computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secure transmission of medical images and related digital patient records on untrusted channels has recently become a focus in healthcare industries. Data hiding and encryption are important tools for this goal. This paper proposes a data-hiding method for medical images in the context of invisibility, robustness, security and low time cost. A dual watermarking is introduced to accomplish chaos-based encryption to ensure medical images' copyright protection and content security. First, a local binary pattern based on neighbouring pixels is used to compute an optimal value, called an embedding factor, for embedding both marks. Second, the host medical image is marked using the lifting wavelet transform, the lower–upper (LU) decomposition and singular value decomposition with an embedding factor to protect ownership. Last, the marked image is encrypted by using a 3D-chaotic map. The method is tested on two standard datasets, which is convenient for medical applications. Our experimental results and performance analysis demonstrate that the proposed scheme produces a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and NC wat 1 / NC wat 2 of 54.82 dB and 0.9916/0.9928, respectively. Furthermore, the key space analysis of our encryption technique is greater than 2 100 , which provides a high protection degree against brute-force attacks. The proposed scheme achieves better robustness, imperceptibility, and security performance than previous schemes. Our method can reduce time costs by 98% (91% on average), which results in lower time costs than other conventional encryption techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new optical image encryption and authentication scheme is proposed with the computational ghost imaging. • The problem of inherent linear defect and key management in computational ghost imaging encryption system is solved. • The dual-channel encryption method provides multi-layer protection for the plaintext images. Considering the necessity of identity authentication in most scenarios, a dual-channel (digital channel and optical channel) image encryption and authentication algorithm with computational ghost imaging (CGI) is proposed. The entire encryption process is governed by the pseudo-random sequences obtained by the 4D chaotic system and the Logistic map. During the digital channel encryption, the confusion and diffusion of the plaintext image are achieved by random scrambling and DNA computing, respectively. To alleviate the burden of key transmission and storage in the CGI encryption system, the speckle measurement matrices are constructed with the pseudo-random numbers obtained by the Logistic map. Additionally, a nonlinear encryption operation is carried out to compensate the linear vulnerability of CGI encryption. In the optical encryption channel, the authentication image is first encrypted with the CGI method, followed by the secondary encryption of the intensity values recorded by a bucket detector to produce an intermediate ciphertext. The final encryption image is generated by merging the intermediate ciphertexts from both encryption channels. It is demonstrated that the proposed optical image encryption and authentication scheme with CGI provides satisfactory encryption and decryption effects and can effectively counteract the common attacks. Moreover, the scheme holds promising application prospects due to its authentication capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring data confidentiality is a critical requirement for modern security systems globally. Despite the implementation of various access-control policies to enhance system security, significant threats persist due to insecure and inadequate access management. To address this, Multi-Party Authorization (MPA) systems employ multiple authorities for authorization and authentication, utilizing blockchain technology to store and access data securely, ensuring immutable and trusted audit trails. In this work, we propose a hybrid key-generation approach called the Identity and Attribute-Based Honey Encryption (IABHE) Algorithm combined with Deep Spiking Neural Network (DSNN) denoted by IABHE+DSNN for secure data sharing in a multi-party blockchain-based system. This approach incorporates various entities and multiple security functionalities to ensure data security. The data-sharing process involves several steps: initialization, authentication, initial registration, data protection, validation, and data sharing. Data protection is executed within the MapReduce framework, with data encryption performed using IABHE and key generation managed by DSNN. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed IABHE+DSNN approach achieves a decryption time of 10.786 s, an encryption time of 15.765 s, and a key complexity of 0.887, outperforming existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we perform neural cryptanalysis on five block ciphers: Data Encryption Standard (DES), Simplified DES (SDES), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Simplified AES (SAES), and SPECK. The block ciphers are investigated on three different deep learning-based attacks, Encryption Emulation (EE), Plaintext Recovery (PR), Key Recovery (KR), and Ciphertext Classification (CC) attacks. The attacks attempt to break the block ciphers in various cases, such as different types of plaintexts (i.e., block-sized bit arrays and texts), different numbers of round functions and quantity of training data, different text encryption methods (i.e., Word-based Text Encryption (WTE) and Sentence-based Text Encryption (STE)), and different deep learning model architectures. As a result, the block ciphers can be vulnerable to EE and PR attacks using a large amount of training data, and STE can improve the strength of the block ciphers, unlike WTE, which shows almost the same classification accuracy as the plaintexts, especially in a CC attack. Moreover, especially in the KR attack, the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN)-based deep learning model shows higher average Bit Accuracy Probability than the fully connected-based deep learning model. Furthermore, the RNN-based deep learning model is more suitable than the transformer-based deep learning model in the CC attack. Besides, when the keys are the same as the plaintexts, the KR attack can perfectly break the block ciphers, even if the plaintexts are randomly generated. Additionally, we identify that DES and SPECK32/64 applying two round functions are more vulnerable than those applying the single round function by performing the KR attack with randomly generated keys and randomly generated single plaintext. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IoT devices produce a vast amount of data ranging from personal to sensitive information. Usually, these devices remain connected to the internet so protecting the information produced by them is crucial. Since most of the IoT devices are resource-constrained, they must be supported with lightweight encryption standards to protect information. Recent research has used the concept of context awareness to select the most suitable data encryption standard based on the device resources along with the required information confidentiality level. However, to effectively use the context information, it is required to be organized explicitly while considering the dynamic nature of IoT systems. In this regard, ontology-based systems effectively reduce the volume of manual work while recommending solutions. Currently, these systems cannot work with precision due to multiple uncertain factors of IoT sensory data. To overcome this challenge, this research proposes a fuzzy ontology-based context-aware system to protect IoT device information with the help of an encryption algorithm that considers device capabilities and user priorities regarding the data confidentiality. In order to automate the recommendation process, Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) rules and fuzzy logic are used, whereas, Description Logic and RDF Query Language is used to evaluate the results. The evaluation results confirm that the proposed method can produce results according to human perception by significantly increasing the accuracy of prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the efficiency of cloud storage, deduplication technology has been widely used. In personal cloud storage, files are diverse. Diverse files contain files of different sizes and different popularity, some of which have many copies. Existing deduplication schemes mainly focus on data security but fail to improve the overall performance, including low computing overhead for diverse data. Using deterministic tags based on convergent encryption to identify data may leak data information, while using fully random tags generated by complex encryption algorithms may generate more computing overhead. To address the above issues, we proposed an encrypted deduplication scheme based on files diversity (FD-Dedup). Diverse files are identified by semi-random tags. We also designed a semi-random tag generation (SRTG) algorithm that coordinates the computing overhead and security. Security analysis and performance comparison show that FD-Dedup can balance security and computing overhead for diverse files in personal cloud storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced computations resulted in the evolution of cyber-physical systems (CPS). These systems are highly vulnerable to security threats. This work addresses the security concerns for a reliable CPS in the Internet of Things (IoT) through an improvised RSA with enhanced security features. The proposed method renders data throughput encryption at 11.67Kbps with an overall average execution time of 0.02s. The proposed algorithm exhibits the unique feature of being asymmetric, lightweight & enhanced security owing to randomization (average entropy of 0.98). The performance metrics of the proposed method are compared with other state-of-art techniques. This algorithm is implemented on commercially competent architecture STM32F401RET6 with cortex M4 processor running @ 84MHz. The proposed encryption method exhibits great features thus making it a potential real-world solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a camera projection approach to enhance the physical layer security of coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) systems. The data are converted to the new location by the camera projection module in the encryption system, where the 5D hyperchaotic system provides the keys for the camera projection module. The simulated 16QAM CO-OFDM security system over 80 km SSMF is shown to provide a key space of about 9 × 1090 through the five-dimensional (5D) hyperchaotic system, making it impossible for eavesdroppers to obtain valid information, and the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is reduced by about 0.8 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the routine exercises to manage and improve the performance and utility of the cloud is the migration or transfer of cloud data whether it is large or small. However, it is extremely challenging to protect both data privacy and integrity concurrently while moving cloud data, particularly when it is very vast. Collectively, prior works fail to offer a complete solution to these problem. Even though data encryption and steganography techniques are popular and efficient, they provide higher time and space complexities and introduce information loss. As a result, the goal of this research is to provide a chaos compression and encryption system based on chaos theory to guarantee both data privacy and integrity during the transit or migration of massive cloud data. During data transmission, the entire data are compressed using a chaotic substitution box followed by an adaptive Huffman encoding algorithms. Therefore, the input data are efficiently transformed into a non-readable form which replaces the original data, making it difficult for an unethical individual or group to determine its true sense. Our evaluation results show that the proposed chaotic technique has a maximum entropy value of 7.99, which supports its ability to provide more privacy when compared to previous techniques. It also delivers the best bits per code of 4.41, a throughput of 2.89 MB/s, and a minimal information loss percentage of 0.0011%, demonstrating its superior time, space efficiency, and ability to improve data integrity over existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete chaotic maps are a mathematical basis for many useful applications. One of the most common is chaos-based pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs), which should be computationally cheap and controllable and possess necessary statistical properties, such as mixing and diffusion. However, chaotic PRNGs have several known shortcomings, e.g., being prone to chaos degeneration, falling in short periods, and having a relatively narrow parameter range. Therefore, it is reasonable to design novel simple chaotic maps to overcome these drawbacks. In this study, we propose a novel fractal chaotic tent map, which is a generalization of the well-known tent map with a fractal function introduced into the right-hand side. We construct and investigate a PRNG based on the proposed map, showing its high level of randomness by applying the NIST statistical test suite. The application of the proposed PRNG to the task of generating surrogate data and a surrogate testing procedure is shown. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach possesses superior accuracy in surrogate testing across three distinct signal types—linear, chaotic, and biological signals—compared to the MATLAB built-in randn() function and PRNGs based on the logistic map and the conventional tent map. Along with surrogate testing, the proposed fractal tent map can be efficiently used in chaos-based communications and data encryption tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical data sharing is pivotal in enhancing accessibility and collaboration among healthcare providers, researchers, and institutions, ultimately leading to enhanced patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery. However, due to the sensitive nature of medical information, ensuring both privacy and confidentiality is paramount. Access control-based data sharing methods have been explored to address these issues, but data privacy concerns still remain. Therefore, this paper proposes a secure and privacy-preserving data sharing scheme that achieves an equilibrium between data confidentiality and privacy. By leveraging key aggregate encryption and private set intersection techniques, our scheme ensures secure data sharing while protecting against the exposure of sensitive information related to data. We conduct informal and formal security analyses, including Burrow–Abadi–Needham logic and Scyther, to demonstrate its resilience against potential adversarial attacks. We also implement the execution time for cryptographic operations using multiprecision integer and a rational arithmetic cryptographic library and perform comparative analysis with existing related schemes in terms of security, computational cost, and time complexity. Our findings demonstrate a high level of security and efficiency, demonstrating that the proposed scheme contributes to the field by providing a solution that protects data privacy while enabling secure and flexible sharing of medical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the quantum circuit implementations of the lightweight authenticated encryption algorithm ASCON by using the NOT gates, CNOT gates, Toffoli gates, measurements, and the dynamic quantum circuits. Firstly, the quantum circuit of addition of constants is realized by adding the NOT gates according to the position of 1 in round constants. Secondly, the quantum circuit of S-box of the permutation is synthesized according to the classical circuit diagram of S-box. Then the linear layer functions are expressed in matrix form, and their quantum circuits are synthesized according to Gaussian elimination. Finally, we synthesize the whole quantum circuits according to the general diagrams of the authenticated encryption algorithm ASCON. The correctness of the quantum circuits of the S-box and the linear layer was verified by the Aer simulator of the IBM Quantum platform. As far as we know, this is the first implementation of the quantum circuits for the Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) of ASCON in-place. The maximum quantum resources for the three ASCON authenticated encryption algorithms were estimated. The quantum circuit of ASCON-128 uses a total of 320 qubits, 30,639 NOT gates, 128,814 CNOT gates, 8064 Toffoli gates, 10,752 measurements, and 5376 dynamic quantum circuits. The quantum circuit of ASCON-128a uses a total of 320 qubits, 23,558 NOT gates, 98,144 CNOT gates, 6144 Toffoli gates, 8192 measurements, and 4096 dynamic quantum circuits. The quantum circuit of ASCON-80pq uses a total of 320 qubits, 30,736 NOT gates, 128,814 CNOT gates, 8064 Toffoli gates, 10,752 measurements, and 5376 dynamic quantum circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smart grid, as a crucial part of modern energy systems, handles extensive and diverse data, including inputs from various sensors, metering devices, and user interactions. Outsourcing data storage to remote cloud servers presents an economical solution for enhancing data management within the smart grid ecosystem. However, ensuring data privacy before transmitting it to the cloud is a critical consideration. Therefore, it is common practice to encrypt the data before uploading them to the cloud. While encryption provides data confidentiality, it may also introduce potential issues such as limiting data owners' ability to query their data. The searchable attribute-based encryption (SABE) not only enables fine-grained access control in a dynamic large-scale environment but also allows for data searches on the ciphertext domain, making it an effective tool for cloud data sharing. Although SABE has become a research hotspot, existing schemes often have limitations in terms of computing efficiency on the client side, weak security of the ciphertext and the trapdoor. To address these issues, we propose an efficient server-aided ciphertext-policy searchable attribute-based encryption scheme (SA-CP-SABE). In SA-CP-SABE, the user's data access authority is consistent with the search authority. During the search process, calculations are performed not only to determine whether the ciphertext matches the keyword in the trapdoor, but also to assist subsequent user ciphertext decryption by reducing computational complexity. Our scheme has been proven under the random oracle model to achieve the indistinguishability of the ciphertext and the trapdoor and to resist keyword-guessing attacks. Finally, the performance analysis and simulation of the proposed scheme are provided, and the results show that it performs with high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of information technology, a growing number of works, including articles, paintings, and music, are being digitized. Digital content can be swiftly shared and disseminated via the Internet. However, it is also vulnerable to malicious plagiarism, which can seriously infringe upon the rights of creators and dampen their enthusiasm. To protect creators' rights and interests, a sophisticated method is necessary to authenticate digital intellectual property rights. Traditional authentication methods rely on centralized, trustworthy organizations that are susceptible to single points of failure. Additionally, these methods are prone to network attacks that can lead to data loss, tampering, or leakage. Moreover, the circulation of copyright information often lacks transparency and traceability in traditional systems, which leads to information asymmetry and prevents creators from controlling the use and protection of their personal information during the authentication process. Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, tamper-proof, and traceable attributes, addresses these issues perfectly. In blockchain technology, each node is a peer, ensuring the symmetry of information. However, the transparent feature of blockchains can lead to the leakage of user privacy data. Therefore, this study designs and implements an Ethereum blockchain-based intellectual property authentication scheme with privacy protection. Firstly, we propose a method that combines elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) encryption with digital signatures to achieve selective encryption of user personal information. Subsequently, an authentication algorithm based on Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK) is adopted to complete the authentication of intellectual property ownership while encrypting personal privacy data. Finally, we adopt the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to store large files, solving the problem of blockchain storage space limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have created cryptography algorithms that encrypt data using a public or private key to secure it from intruders. It is insufficient to protect the data by using such a key. No research article has identified an algorithm capable of protecting both the data and the associated key, nor has any mechanism been developed to determine whether access to the data is permissible or impermissible based on the authentication of the key. This paper presents a WEDEx-Kerberotic Framework for data protection, in which a user-defined key is firstly converted to a cipher key using the "Secure Words on Joining Key (SWJK)" algorithm. Subsequently, a WEDEx-Kerberotic encryption mechanism is created to protect the data by encrypting it with the cipher key. The first reason for making the WEDEx-Kerberotic Framework is to convert the user-defined key into a key that has nothing to do with the original key, and the length of the cipher key is much shorter than the original key. The second reason is that each ciphertext and key value are interlinked. When an intruder utilizes the snatching mechanism to obtain data, the attacker obtains data or a key unrelated to the original data. No matter how efficient the algorithm is, an attacker cannot access the data when these methods and algorithms are used to protect it. Finally, the proposed algorithm is compared to the previous approaches to determine the uniqueness of the algorithm and assess its superiority to the previous algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum computing advancements pose security challenges for cryptography. Specifically, Grover's search algorithm affects the reduction in the search complexity of symmetric-key encryption and hash functions. Recent efforts have been made to estimate the complexity of Grover's search and evaluate post-quantum security. In this paper, we propose a depth-optimized quantum circuit implementation for ASCON, including both symmetric-key encryption and hashing algorithms, as a part of the lightweight cryptography standardization by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). As far as we know, this is the first implementation of a quantum circuit for the ASCON AEAD (Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data) scheme, which is a symmetric-key algorithm. Also, our quantum circuit implementation of the ASCON-HASH achieves a reduction of more than 88.9% in the Toffoli depth and more than 80.5% in the full depth compared to the previous work. As per our understanding, the most effective strategy against Grover's search involves minimizing the depth of the quantum circuit for the target cipher. We showcase the optimal Grover's search cost for ASCON and introduce a proposed quantum circuit optimized for depth. Furthermore, we utilize the estimated cost to evaluate post-quantum security strength of ASCON, employing the relevant evaluation criteria and the latest advancements in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA‐based hybrid materials have attracted much attention recently for their biocompatibility, tunable optical, and semiconducting properties. In this study, thin films fabricated using native DNA are modified to accommodate the assembled fluorescent dyes (perylene and 3‐bromoperylene), alongside the systematical evaluation of their photophysical properties and performance. Spectroscopy results reveal successful modulation of the molecular excitonic behaviour, achieve switchable single‐chromophore multi‐color emission in DNA‐surfactant‐dye thin films, with high optical transparency and thermal robustness. The nucleotide base pairs effectively suppress unfavorable intermolecular π–π stacking and aggregation (self‐association) of the chromophores, which prevents intersystem crossing and relaxation associated Rydberg type molecular clusters to form intermolecular excimers in E‐state (532, 513 nm) and Y‐state (489, 483 nm), blocking nonradiative decay. The preeminent emission observed (457, 445 nm) is attributed to the 0–1 band monomer emission. Compared to PMMA‐dye assembly, the thin film derived from DNA‐surfactant‐dye hybrid narrows the FWHM values up to 72%, displayed molarity ratio‐dependent emission color tunability from yellow‐orange (CIE 0.47, 0.34) to green (CIE 0.31, 0.21) and blue (CIE 0.17, 0.23). These findings provide a simple, all‐solution processed strategy for creating thin films using DNA‐surfactant‐dye hybrid materials with tunable optical properties suitable for biocompatible displays and data encryption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology have emerged as increasingly prevalent and influential elements shaping global trends in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Namely, the synergistic combination of blockchain and AI introduces beneficial, unique features with the potential to enhance the performance and efficiency of existing ICT systems. However, presently, the confluence of these two disruptive technologies remains in a rather nascent stage, undergoing continuous exploration and study. In this context, the work at hand offers insight regarding the most significant features of the AI and blockchain intersection. Sixteen outstanding, recent articles exploring the combination of AI and blockchain technology have been systematically selected and thoroughly investigated. From them, fourteen key features have been extracted, including data security and privacy, data encryption, data sharing, decentralized intelligent systems, efficiency, automated decision systems, collective decision making, scalability, system security, transparency, sustainability, device cooperation, and mining hardware design. Moreover, drawing upon the related literature stemming from major digital databases, we constructed a timeline of this technological convergence comprising three eras: emerging, convergence, and application. For the convergence era, we categorized the pertinent features into three primary groups: data manipulation, potential applicability to legacy systems, and hardware issues. For the application era, we elaborate on the impact of this technology fusion from the perspective of five distinct focus areas, from Internet of Things applications and cybersecurity, to finance, energy, and smart cities. This multifaceted, but succinct analysis is instrumental in delineating the timeline of AI and blockchain convergence and pinpointing the unique characteristics inherent in their integration. The paper culminates by highlighting the prevailing challenges and unresolved questions in blockchain and AI-based systems, thereby charting potential avenues for future scholarly inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secure communication techniques are important due to the increase in the number of technology users across the world. Likewise, a more random encryption algorithm suitable to secure data from unauthorised users is highly expected. This paper proposes a two-parameter nonlinear chaos map that is sensitive to the trio seed (s0, α, λ) and has better information encryption. We introduce the parameter a to linearise the conventional chaos system, which in turn brings a delay in the cryptosystems. The delay is a phenomenon that changes the chaotic features of a system. A small delay in the system leads to more aperiodicity and the unpredictability of the chaotic attractions. We normalise the new chaos map and use the Lipschitz and pseudo-contractive operators to obtain its irregularity region in Hilbert spaces. We also analyse the chaos map in terms of trajectory, Lyapunov exponent, complexity, and information entropy. Results obtained show that the new chaos map has a wide chaotic range and better statistical properties. It also maintains low complexity due to its linearity and produces more key spaces than most existing chaotic maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the information age, smart meters play an important role in the smart grid. However, there are more and more attacks on smart meters, which mainly focus on the identity authentication of smart meters and the security protection of electricity consumption data. In this paper, an efficient lightweight smart meter authentication scheme is proposed based on the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT), which can realize the revocation of a single smart meter user by publishing a secret random value bound to the smart meter identity. The proposed scheme not only protects the security of smart meter electricity consumption data by using encryption, but also resists identity attacks from both internal and external adversaries by using hash functions and timestamps. Experiment shows that the proposed scheme has lower computation overhead and communication overhead than other authentication schemes and is more suitable for smart meter authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the popularity of blockchain application in healthcare sector has increased manifold due to features such as decentralized architecture, security, immutability and authentication. However, there are some challenges associated with blockchain-based healthcare frameworks. Firstly, blockchain provides data verifiability meaning that anything stored there is accessible to all nodes in the network for verification. However, it is unacceptable for sensitive medical data to be made accessible to everyone. Secondly, healthcare sectors are group-oriented and frequently involve open networks for communication which lead to data breaches and other security risks. Lastly, due to limited size of a block in blockchain, many hospitals prefer storing patient's data locally in a centralized server or opt for cloud storage which have their own threat vectors. In this work, we propose a three-phase unified approach to solve the above problems. Our framework utilizes proxy re-encryption and advanced cryptographic techniques to provide stringent access control. Next, a blockchain-based group encryption is proposed to ensure secure group communication. A group session key will be agreed upon by the authorized group members and used to protect sensitive patient information. Lastly, IPFS-based blockchain data storage is proposed to maintain data securely offsite. We provide a comparative security analysis of the proposed framework with other existing peer models and show that our framework offers several new security features. We also examine the security of the proposed framework using BAN logic. Furthermore, the proposed framework is simulated using the OMNET++ software, and its storage and computation costs are examined to establish its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To secure sensitive medical records in the healthcare clouds, this paper proposes an End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) to enhance a patient-centric blockchain-based system for electronic health record (EHR) management. The suggested system with a focus on the patient enables individuals to oversee their medical records within various involved parties by authorizing or withdrawing permission for access to their records. Utilizing the inter-planetary file system (IPFS) for record storage is chosen due to its decentralized nature and its ability to guarantee the unchangeability of records. Then an E2EE enhancement maintains the medical data integrity using dual level-Hybrid encryption: symmetric Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and asymmetric Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) cryptographic techniques. The proposed system is implemented using the Ethereum blockchain system for EHR data sharing and integration utilizing a web-based interface for the patient and all users to initiate the EHR sharing transactions over the IPFS cloud. The proposed system performance is evaluated in a working system prototype. For different file sizes between 512 KB to 100 MB, the performance metrics used to evaluate the proposed system were the time consumed for generating key, encryption, and decryption. The results demonstrate the proposed system's superiority over other cutting-edge systems and its practical ability to share secure health data in cloud environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetric cryptography provides the best examples of cryptosystems to be applied in lightweight environments (e.g., IoT). A representative example is the cryptosystem TinyJambu, one of the ten finalists in the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Standardization Project. It is an authentication encryption with associated data scheme that is extremely lightweight and fast. In this work, we analyze the security of TinyJambu from two distinct and non-symmetric points of view: (1) the improvement of the best cryptanalytical attack found in the literature and (2) a randomness analysis of the generated sequences. Concerning item (1), we launched a differential forgery attack with probability 2−65.9487, which was improved considerably compared with previous numerical results. Concerning item (2), we analyzed the degree of randomness of the TinyJambu keystream sequences with a complete and powerful battery of statistical tests. This non-symmetric study shows the weakness of TinyJambu against cryptanalytic attacks as well as the strength of TinyJambu against statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy is given top priority as far as communication involving transfer of confidential document or data is concerned. There is therefore a need to keep confidential data secretive from being invaded by unauthorised access, and this is done through cryptography algorithms, where the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm has been the widely accepted symmetric block encryption algorithm for such purposes. This paper therefore focuses on developing a new AES-512 bits symmetric encryption algorithm through modification of the conventional AES-128 algorithm to be used purposefully in the classroom for document transfer. The development comes with increasing the plaintext bits of the conventional AES-128 algorithm to 512 bits plaintext which undergoes five operational transformations: STATE, SKGF, SRL, SCL and AARC through key size in the Galois field, GF(29 ). A numerical example is then given to explain the use of the algorithm, and finally, we provide a comparative study of this algorithm and other existing symmetric encryption models, such as the AES-128 and DES algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a methodology for generating secure cryptographic key bits from analog values obtained from the Lorenz chaotic circuit. The analog values are transferred from the chaotic circuit to the computer via an Analog Discovery-2 device and then post-processed by using a fixed-point number representation format and Von-Neumann corrector for the sampled values on the MATLAB program. By employing this method, the analog values are digitized and randomized as the main idea is to obtain secure and efficient statistically random bits. Furthermore, the generated random bits are utilized for secure audio encryption by demonstrating a practical application of the proposed methodology. In addition to the classical randomness test criteria, NIST 800.22 statistical test suite, the throughput bit stream is also subjected to Chi-square and FIPS 140-1 tests to further evaluate its effectiveness. The results of these comprehensive tests confirm the successful performance of the proposed system in generating statistically random bits and its secure audio encryption system. The utilization of the Lorenz chaotic circuit as an entropy source in generating true random bits for secure audio transmission applications showcases the potential of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of big data, information security has become more and more essential for the Internet of Things. Since the software encryption algorithm can be easily hacked, the hardware security system has emerged as a reliable way to safeguard information. Here, a GaOx-based memristor array is experimentally demonstrated, which features a good multi-level storage capacity, 20 ns switching speed, and highly linear conductance modulation of over 500 states by multi pulses. An artificial neural network and an XOR circuit were further constructed based on this memristor array. This work connects memristor array-based handwritten digit recognition and data security circuit, forming a new data security management system for secure password input and transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To adhere to and capitalize on the benefits of the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) principles in agricultural genome-to-phenome studies, it is crucial to address privacy and intellectual property issues that prevent sharing and reuse of data in research and industry. Direct sharing of genotype and phenotype data is often prohibited due to intellectual property and privacy concerns. Thus, there is a pressing need for encryption methods that obscure confidential aspects of the data, without affecting the outcomes of certain statistical analyses. A homomorphic encryption method for genotypes and phenotypes (HEGP) has been proposed for single-marker regression in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using linear mixed models with Gaussian errors. This methodology permits frequentist likelihood-based parameter estimation and inference. In this paper, we extend HEGP to broader applications in genome-to-phenome analyses. We show that HEGP is suited to commonly used linear mixed models for genetic analyses of quantitative traits including genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) and ridge-regression best linear unbiased prediction (RR-BLUP), as well as Bayesian variable selection methods (e.g. those in Bayesian Alphabet), for genetic parameter estimation, genomic prediction, and GWAS. By advancing the capabilities of HEGP, we offer researchers and industry professionals a secure and efficient approach for collaborative genomic analyses while preserving data confidentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the rapid development of intelligent technology, information security and privacy issues have become increasingly prominent. Epidemiological survey data (ESD) research plays a vital role in understanding the laws and trends of disease transmission. However, epidemiological investigations (EI) involve a large amount of privacy-sensitive data which, once leaked, will cause serious harm to individuals and society. Collecting EI data is also a huge task. To solve these problems and meet personalized privacy protection requirements in EIs, we improve the uOUE protocol based on utility-optimized local differential privacy to improve the efficiency and accuracy of data coding. At the same time, aiming at the collection and processing of ESD, a multidimensional epidemiological survey data aggregation scheme based on uOUE is designed. By using Paillier homomorphic encryption and an identity-based signature scheme to further prevent differential attacks and achieve multidimensional data aggregation, the safe, efficient, and accurate aggregation processing of ESD is executed. Through security proof and performance comparison, it is verified that our algorithm meets the requirements of local differential privacy and unbiased estimation. The experimental evaluation results on two data sets show that the algorithm has good practicability and accuracy in ESD collection and provides reliable and effective privacy protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microscale thermal signature control using incoherent heat sources remains challenging, despite recent advancements in plasmonic materials and phase-change materials. Inspired by leafhopper-generated brochosomes, we design binary metastructures functioning as pixel twins to achieve pixelated thermal signature control at the microscale. In the infrared range, the pixel twins exhibit distinct emissivities, creating thermal counterparts of "0-1" binary states for storing and displaying information. In the visible range, the engineered surface morphology of the pixel twins ensures similar scattering behaviors. This renders them visually indistinguishable, thereby concealing the stored information. The brochosome-like pixel twins are self-emitting when thermally excited. Their structure-enabled functions do not rely on the permittivities of specific materials, which distinguishes them from the conventional laser-illuminated plasmonic holographic metasurfaces. The unique combination of visible camouflage and infrared display offers a systemic solution to microscale spatial control of thermal signatures and has substantial implications for optical security, anticounterfeiting, and data encryption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a traceability framework founded upon a methodological approach specifically designed for the integration of the IOTA-based distributed ledger within the mining industry. This framework constitutes an initial stride towards the certification and labelling of sustainable material production. The efficacy of this methodology is subject to real-world evaluation within the framework of the European Commission funded project DIG_IT. Within the architectural framework, the integration of decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and the IOTA network are instrumental in effecting the encryption of data records, with associated hashes securely anchored on the explorer. Recorded environmental parameters, encompassing metrics such as pH level, turbidity, electrical conductivity, and emissions, serve as tangible evidence affirming their adherence to prevailing regulatory standards. The overarching system architecture encompasses a sophisticated Industrial Internet of Things platform (IIoTp), facilitating the seamless connection of data from a diverse array of sensors. End users, including governmental entities, mining managers, and the general public, stand to derive substantial benefits from tailored dashboards designed to facilitate the validation of data for emission compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of 6G Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technology, IoT security faces inevitable challenges due to the application requirements of Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTCs). In response, a 6G base station (gNB) and User Equipment (UE) necessitate increased capacities to handle a larger number of connections while maintaining reasonable performance during operations. To address this developmental trend and overcome associated technological hurdles, this paper proposes a hardware-accelerated and software co-designed mechanism to support streaming data transmissions and secure zero-trust inter-endpoint communications. The proposed implementations aim to offload processing efforts from micro-processors and enhance global system operation performance by hardware and software co-design in endpoint communications. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed secure mechanism based on the use of non-repeating keys and implemented in FPGA, can save 85.61%, 99.71%, and 95.68% of the micro-processor's processing time in key block generations, non-repeating checks, and data block transfers, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis requires the simultaneous development of cloud computing technology. The application of IoT‐to‐cloud setting has been fully applied in various industry sectors, such as sensor‐cloud system which is composed of wireless sensor network and cloud computing technology. With the increasing amount and types of collected data, companies need to reduce the dimension of massive data in cloud servers for obtaining data analysis reports rapidly. Due to frequent cloud server data leaks, companies must adequately protect the privacy of some confidential data. To this end, we designed a dimension reduction method for ciphertext data in the sensor‐cloud system based on the CKKS encryption scheme, principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) dimension reduction algorithm. As data cannot be directly calculated using traditional PCA and LDA algorithm after encryption, we add some interactive operations and iterative calculations to replace some steps in traditional algorithms. Finally, we select the classification dataset IRIS which is commonly used in machine learning, and screen out the best encryption and calculation parameters, and efficiently realize the dimension reduction method of ciphertext data through a large number of experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of System-on-Chip (SoC) technologies, the burgeoning data volumes emphasize the paramount importance of safeguarding data security and integrity. In this study, by leveraging Ascon in conjunction with enhancements to the SHA-1 algorithm, two secure Direct Memory Access (DMA) controllers are designed to facilitate data encryption and comparison, respectively, culminating in the proposal of an SoC architecture featuring dual DMA controllers. Simulation outcomes demonstrate the system's ability to achieve a maximum clock frequency of 120 MHz, offering a throughput rate of up to 3.2 GB/s. The multi-master multi-slave AHB bus matrix within the system operates impeccably, ensuring smooth functionality. Furthermore, the two DMA controllers exhibit independent operation, featuring flexible start-stop capabilities. Notably, they operate harmoniously without conflicts, optimizing the area utilization while adhering to a low power consumption design methodology. The results unequivocally affirm the feasibility of designing a secure SoC integrated with two DMA controllers. This hardware-based approach effectively ensures data security, showcasing promising prospects for real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is one quantum technology that can provide secure encryption keys for data transmission. The secret key rate (SKR) is a core performance indicator in QKD, which directly determines the transmission rate of enciphered data. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate a high-key-rate Gaussian-modulated continuous-variable QKD (CV-QKD) using telecom optical components. The framework of CV-QKD over these components is constructed. Specifically, the high-rate low-noise Gaussian modulation of coherent states is realized by a classical optical IQ modulator. High-baud low-intensity quantum signals are received by an integrated coherent receiver under the shot-noise limit. A series of digital signal processing algorithms are proposed to achieve accurate signal recovery and key distillation. The system can yield a high asymptotic SKR of 10.37 Mbps within 20 km standard telecom fiber, and the secure distance can exceed 100 km. This result confirms the feasibility of CV-QKD with state-of-the-art performance using telecom optical components. Besides, due to the ease of integrating these discrete components, it provides a high-performance and miniaturized QKD solution for the metropolitan quantum network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible optical property changes in lead‐free perovskites have recently received great interest due to their potential applications in smart windows, sensors, data encryption, and various on‐demand devices. However, it is challenging to achieve remarkable color changes in their thin films. Here, methylamine gas (CH3NH2, MA0) induced switchable optical bleaching of bismuth (Bi)‐based perovskite films is demonstrated for the first time. By exposure to an MA0 atmosphere, the color of Cs2AgBiBr6 (CABB) films changes from yellow to transparent, and the color of Cs3Bi2I9 (CBI) films changes from dark red to transparent. More interestingly, the underlying reason is found to be the interactions between MA0 and Bi3+ with the formation of an amorphous liquefied transparent intermediate phase, which is different from that of lead‐based perovskite systems. Moreover, the generality of this approach is demonstrated with other amine gases, including ethylamine (C2H5NH2, EA0) and butylamine (CH3(CH2)3NH2, BA0), and another compound, Cs3Sb2I9, by observing a similar reversible optical bleaching phenomenon. The potential for the application of CABB and CBI films in switchable smart windows is investigated. This study provides valuable insights into the interactions between amine gases and lead‐free perovskites, opening up new possibilities for high‐efficiency optoelectronic and stimuli‐responsive applications of these emerging Bi‐based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain management has become increasingly complex, leading to information loss and delayed transmission, exacerbating the bullwhip effect. Furthermore, the need for more reliable information storage, traceability, and accountability has slowed supply chain management. In this context, blockchain technology (BCT) solves the bullwhip effect problem, as it supports distributed networking, information synchronization among nodes, digital encryption, traceable information, and unchangeable block content. This paper proposes using public blockchain to solve the bullwhip effect problem in the supply chain (SC), which has yet to be discussed in published academic research papers. To this end, a framework has been developed to determine the readiness of a supply chain for blockchain adoption. This framework includes a checklist to evaluate the motivation, timing, and appropriate platform for adopting blockchain. The framework has been validated using a case study of personal computer devices, which were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulted in semiconductors supply chain disruption. The study involved polling four executives The study involved polling four executives (of large organizations in Egypt and some Middle Eastern countries) representing different stages in the supply chain, they are retail, distribution, manufacturing, and supply. The results showed that while the executives recognized the benefits of adopting blockchain, they were still determining if it was the right time for adoption and did not see the technology ready for their supply chains. Finally, some public blockchain platforms were introduced to help businesses choose the most suitable platform for adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the existing security vulnerabilities within IoT publish–subscribe systems, our study introduces an improved end-to-end encryption approach using conditional proxy re-encryption. This method not only overcomes limitations associated with the reliance on a trusted authority and the challenge of reliably revoking users in previous proxy re-encryption frameworks, but also strengthens data privacy against potential collusion between the broker and subscribers. Through our innovative encryption protocol, unauthorized re-encryption by brokers is effectively prevented, enhancing secure communication between publisher and subscriber. Implemented on HiveMQ, an open-source MQTT platform, our prototype system demonstrates significant enhancements. Comparison to the state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption work, encryption overhead of our scheme is comparable to it, and the decryption cost is approximately half of it. Moreover, our solution significantly improves overall security without compromising the asynchronous communication and decentralized authorization foundational to the publish–subscribe model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]