Enhancing the Security of Cryptographic Algorithms in Cloud- Based Cyber-Physical Systems (CCPSs)

Abstract

Data security has become one of the biggest hurdles in the adoption of cloud-based cyber-physical systems (CCPSs), as CCPS is directly associated with the user’s private data. Recently, data breaches have proven disastrous for an organization or nation. Therefore, cloud data security has become one of the emerging topics for academicians and researchers. Every year, many symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic algorithms are designed and tested. Key and key lengths are the soul of all cryptographic algorithms. An attacker can access the entire data if they can predict the key, and it is straightforward to predict the smaller length keys. Therefore, the key should be unpredictable and as complex as possible. In this chapter, a framework of pseudorandom key generator is designed using metaheuristic algorithms, transfer function, and Shannon entropy. Using the framework, keys of various lengths are generated for the whale optimization algorithm (WOA), which can be used in state-of-the-art cryptographic algorithms, namely DES, PRESENT, AES 128/192/256, 3DES, and Blowfish. Further, the complexity of the key generated using WOA is compared against the peer algorithms. Moreover, the quality of the key is also examined by performing various statistical tests as guided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).