Abstract

Introduction: A recent boom in the development of IoT-enabled products has accelerated data transmission from end clients to cloud services and vice versa. Being resource-constrained, IoT devices have lower computational support, especially at IoT end nodes; hence, the probability of data breach has also increased to a greater extent.

Methods: A lightweight security algorithm for the Internet of Things (IoT) is a matter of concern for data security and integrity. IoT nodes transmit the data into small chunks and are vulnerable to attacks, such as probing attacks. In this study, a new approach of algorithm hopping using dynamic switching of encryption algorithm has been proposed.

Results: Dynamic Encryption Decryption Algorithm (DEnDecA) proves to be a lightweight choice of encryption by providing high-security shielding over less secure algorithms by their dynamic selection without any human interaction or interface. The hopping has been implemented using MATLAB along with AES-32, AES-64, and AES-128.

Conclusion: The results show only 8-bit data overhead and 2ms to 8ms additional time for encryption/ decryption for data ranging from 1KB to 1MB for AES-128, AES-64, and AES-32 algorithms.

Keywords: Advanced encryption standard, AES, IoT security, lightweight security, security algorithms, algorithm hopping, physical layer security, FPGA.

Graphical Abstract