Lightweight Public Key Algorithms for Low Power Environments

Fielded unattended ground sensors (UGS) are deployed in dangerous areas, where devices are found and stolen by adversaries. Some adversaries have a high level of technical sophistication, which is used to attempt reverse engineering the device found and to attempt to compromise the remaining deployed system. A cryptosystem which provides the capabilities of both public-key and private-key cryptography, is needed to provide both authentication and encryption. However, resource constrained embedded devices found in UGS systems lack the memory and processing capabilities to implement standard public-key algorithms and maintain the associated keys with a large number of devices in the network. McQ has developed an approach using revolutionary cryptographic techniques that provides both authentication and encryption, but on resource constrained embedded devices, without the burden of large amounts of key distribution or storage. This approach will be refined during Phase I by selecting and optimizing the required cryptosystems, applying the approach to UGS systems through a conceptual design, and benchmarking the initial performance of the approach on a representative low SWaP hardware platform.