Encryption of Voice, Data and Video (Vdv) for Secure Terrestrial and Satellite Communications
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Dimov Stojce Ilcev / International Journal of New Technologies in Science and Engineering Vol. 2, Issue. 4,October 2015, ISSN 2349-0780 ENCRYPTION OF VOICE, DATA AND VIDEO (VDV) FOR SECURE TERRESTRIAL AND SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS Stojce Dimov Ilcev Durban University of Technology (DUT), 133 Bencorrum, 183 Prince Street, Durban, South Africa Abstract: This paper introduces the Voice, Data and Video (VDV) encryption as protection shield for secure terrestrial and satellite communication systems deploying special hardware and software scrambling solutions against government or private surveillance and spying. The encryption covers fixed, personal and mobile (cellular) solutions including computer, fax and telex messaging modes for commercial and military applications. Keywords: Encryption, VDV/NSA, DES/AES, RSA/IBE I. INTRODUCTION Secure communication is when two entities are communicating and do not want a third party to listen in or to communicate in a way not susceptible to eavesdropping or interception. It includes means by which people can share mutual information with varying degrees of certainty that third parties cannot intercept what was said, heard, sent and saw. Other than spoken face-to-face communication with no possible eavesdropper, it is probably safe to say that no communication is guaranteed secure in this sense, although practical obstacles such as legislation, resources, technical issues (interception and encryption), and the sheer volume of communication serve to limit surveillance. In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding voice (speech and fax), data (messages or text) and video (TV, videoconference and images) in such a way that only authorized parties can listen, read or see it properly. Encryption does not of itself prevent interception, but denies the speech, message and image content to the interceptor. In an encryption scheme, the speech, message or image information, referred to as secure plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, generating ciphertext that can only be read if decrypted. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption key generated by an algorithm. An authorized recipient can easily decrypt the message or voice with the key, provided by the originator to recipients but not to unauthorized interceptors. However, it is in principle possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key, which requires very large computational resources and skill are required. II. ENCRIPTION STANDARDS Ongoing news reports in the international media have revealed operational details about the US National Security Agency (NSA) and its international partners’ global surveillance of foreign nationals and US citizens. The reports mostly emanate from a cache of top-secret documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who obtained them while working for B.A. Hamilton, one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the US government. Available online @ www.ijntse.com 317 Dimov Stojce Ilcev / International Journal of New Technologies in Science and Engineering Vol. 2, Issue. 4,October 2015, ISSN 2349-0780 To prevent surveillance and cracking data, today are used a number of standards and protocols related to cryptography. There are many cryptographic algorithms available in the market to encrypt the computer or other devices data, which strengths depend upon the cryptographic system. Crypto systems are composed from cryptographic primitives such as encryption algorithm, number of keys, hash and round functions, memory elements, real time operating system, etc. Some important encryption algorithms are: - Data Encryption Standard (DES) was once a predominant symmetric-key algorithm for the encryption of electronic data. It was highly influential in the advancement of modern cryptography in the academic world. Developed in the early 1970s at IBM and endorsed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It uses a 56-bit key to encrypt the 64 bit block size data. It processes 64-bit inputs into 64-bit cipher-text and algorithm performs 16 iterations. However, DES was susceptible to brute-force attacks, and as a result it was phased out at the start of the 21st century by a more secure encryption standard AES. - Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the first publicly accessible, from the NSA for the classification “top secret” approved cipher. It started in 1997 as one of the most frequently used and most secure encryption algorithms available today. Thus, this algorithm is based on several substitutions, permutations and linear transformations, each executed on data blocks of 16 byte, therefore the term block cipher. Those operations are repeated several times, called “rounds”. During each round, a unique round key is calculated out of the encryption key, and incorporated in the calculations. The AES encryption system offers AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256 with drastic improvements compared to the 56-bit key of DES. The 128-bit AES key is not so secure like unbreakable AES-256, however to provide its cracking with a state-of-the-art supercomputer would take longer than the presumed age of the universe. As of today, no practicable attack against AES-256 exists, because 256-bit is secure against any likely future technology, and forthcoming 512-bit is probably secure against even never-imagined hypothetical alien technology. In Table 1 is provided time to crack versus key. Table 1. Cracking Time of Key Size - Rivest, Shamir and Adelman (RSA) is a public-key encryption technology developed by RSA Data Security, which is based on the fact that there is no efficient way to factor very large numbers. Deducing an RSA key, requires an extraordinary amount of computer processing power and time. The RSA algorithm is widely used for securing sensitive data, particularly when being sent over an insecure network such as the Internet, built into many software products, including Windows, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google and other solutions. The technology is so powerful that the US government has restricted exporting it to foreign countries. The RSA key length of 1024-bits is sufficient for many medium-security purposes such as web site logins and long-term confidential data. The 2048-bit is for a contingency plan for migrating to larger key sizes and to keep data confidential for more than the next two decades. The new coming 3072-bit promises more reliable a key size larger than 2048-bits. - Elliptical Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a public key encryption technique based on elliptic curve theory that can be used to create faster, smaller and more efficient cryptographic keys. It was discovered in 1985 by Victor Miller (IBM) and Neil Koblitz (Washington University) as an alternative mechanism for implementing public-key cryptography. Available online @ www.ijntse.com 318 Dimov Stojce Ilcev / International Journal of New Technologies in Science and Engineering Vol. 2, Issue. 4,October 2015, ISSN 2349-0780 Public-key algorithms provide sharing keys among large numbers of participants or entities in a complex information system. Unlike other popular algorithms such as RSA, ECC is based on discrete logarithms that are much more difficult to challenge at equivalent key lengths. These benefits of ECC were very important to the NSA as it chooses its security for use over several decades in its crypto hardware [1, 2, 3]. III. IMPORTANCE AND EFFECIENCY OF ENCRIPTION SECURITY Therefore, encryption plays an important role in mitigating risk related to the many threats and cracklings. If sensitive information stored on computers is well encrypted, it will take a secret key to decode it. If sensitive information en route to others is encrypted, only someone that knows the secret key can read what it says. When sensitive information is encrypted and it ends up logged by others in the course of communicating online, encryption keeps those without the secret key from knowing the contents of the message. In addition to the theoretical comparisons and experimental analysis between DES and AES algorithms in Table 2 is shown a comparative study between DES and AES into nine factors, such as key length, cipher type, block size, developed, cryptanalysis resistance, security, possibility key, possible ACSII printable character keys and time required to check all possible key. Based on the text files used and the experimental result it was realized that AES algorithm consumes least encryption and decryption time as compared to DES algorithm. Otherwise, new proposed Hybrid Encryption Algorithm using Block cipher and symmetric key provides a more secure and convenient technique for secure data trans-mission for all kind of applications Table 2. Comparison between DES and AES for VDV Encryption According to the NIST, keys for symmetric ciphers such as AES must be matched in strength by public key algorithms such as RSA and ECC. For example, a 128-bit AES demand a 3072-bit RSA key, while 256-bit AES demands an RSA key size of 15,360-bits for equivalent security. Clearly, 15,360-bits would bring almost any system to its knees since key size is directly related to computing resources. Thus, a message encrypted using a modern One-time Pad cannot be broken because the encryption key is a random number and because the key is used only once. Before today no one thought it was possible to successfully break a 923-bit code. And even if it was possible, scientists estimated it would take thousands of years. Table 3. Cost Comparison between PKI and IBE Encryption Solutions Available online @ www.ijntse.com 319 Dimov Stojce Ilcev / International Journal of New Technologies in Science and Engineering Vol. 2, Issue. 4,October 2015, ISSN 2349-0780 One of the biggest questions right now is how powerful the government’s code-breaking tools are, and the extent to which they are capable of cracking the algorithms, and at what speed, that power modern encryption programs. However, the US government doesn’t tell in public how many codes it can break, but even if the government can’t crack the codes just yet, there is still the anonymity problem of the government seeing who sent what to whom.