Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Cryptography plays a fundamental role in providing security for computer and communication systems in a variety of applications. The objective of this research is to investigate the digital hardware design of symmetric-key encryption algorithms, such as stream ciphers and block ciphers, targeted to a range of application environments, but with a special focus on small, low power devices. These investigations will consider the resistance of the cipher designs to side-channel attacks, an increasingly important category of security vulnerabilities based on information leaked due to implementation factors. The research will examine the following aspects of digital hardware implementation and related cryptographic theory: (1) general architectures and design techniques for low complexity and low power designs, (2) design methods to prevent or mitigate side-channel attacks, (3) modes of operation targeted to applications requiring hardware implementations of ciphers, and (4) the analysis of newly proposed ciphers with respect to side-channel attacks. The research will make extensive use of the digital hardware design tools provided by CMC Microsystems and practical realizations of designs will target field programmable gate array (FPGA) and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) CMOS technologies. As an engineering research program, this work will contribute significantly to the aspects of cipher design which make practical applications secure and efficient, particularly in the increasingly important domain of small, embedded devices. It is anticipated that the research will contribute to the development of practices used for the application of security in a broad range of communication products. The training aspect of the proposal, in addition to potential intellectual property and scientific knowledge arising from the work, will contribute to the growth of the security sector in Canadian high tech industry.