A Power-Efficient and Quantum-Resistant N-Bit Cryptography Algorithm

Introduction

Technological advancements, network development, rise of decentralized network, edge computing given rise to fresh possibilities and have fuelled the demand for digitization. Analysing applications of wireless networks involved in collection and transfer of data. The data over networking could be as important as being in the wrong hands would change millions of people’s life in a second. Data security has been evolved as one of the major and active area of interest for researchers. Cryptography is a way of securing the data by transforming it into an obscured form. Hash functions are the form of cryptographic algorithms that produce a string of fixed length for the data provided. Hence used in applications where there is a significant need to verify the identity of the other party rather than the original data encryption. This technique has grown over the time with pros and cons and has taken a new dimension in digital signatures. Advancements in classical computing and quantum computing techniques have driven the need for more stronger cryptography.

Having put a constant effort, the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) has provided recommendations for change in the sizes from 80 bits to 128 bits security. Quantum computers are involved in altering the messages by adapting several communication techniques along with the associated mathematical concepts. Research is being carried out for the analysis of scalability of the quantum computers and by the analysis, it is estimated that the capacity of quantum computer will be enhanced to break a 2000 bit Rivert-Shavor Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem by 2030 (Lily Chen et al., 2016). In a view of securing sensitive computerized message or data, many cryptographic algorithms are being formulated by computer scientist and mathematicians arriving to present the information from malicious attacks. These developments have created a threat of making many of the present NIST recommended techniques obsolete. This is also because the counter attacking programs are getting advanced at the faster rate. Therefore, there is a necessity of correlating and analysing the forecasts and predictions by crumbling these cryptosystems with scholastic computers. The cryptosystems that were formulated in 2011-2013 aiming to offer 80bits security are judged to be broken at a cost of approximately hundred million dollars and are therefore at greater risks. Study says that cryptosystems developed to offer 112bits security may exist for some period of time and can be broken at a cost of billions of dollars in a duration of 30 to 40 years (Lily Chen et al., 2016; Matthew Campagna et al., 2015).

The quantum computers can efficiently compute the hard mathematical problems faster. Table 1 depicts a brief analysis of conventional cryptography algorithms and effect of quantum computers on them.

This paper has chosen SHA algorithms to study the impact of quantum computers and attempt is made to design an approach to increase the output length of hash functions and implemented design using reversible logic to make it power efficient (Lily Chen et al., 2016).