A team of professors, Dr. G. Geetha, Dr. Rahul Saha and Dr. Gulshan Kumar at Lovely Professional University (LPU) have developed a new digital security algorithm to prevent financial frauds called BaReNPI, the algorithm uses a software-based random number generator making it even more secure to withstand cyber-attacks than AES 256 (Advanced Encryption Standard 256), which is the current gold standard for electronic cryptographic encryption.
Security Algorithms like BaReNPI are used by messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal programs like VeraCrypt and WinZip as well as a range of hardware and a variety of other technologies to transmit data securely. The research team has filed a US-patent and has also bagged funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the hardware implementation of the algorithm.
LPU Professors have used properties of random numbers to develop a solution in the form of Symmetric Random Function Generator (SRFG) which brings randomness in the key generation process in AES, thereby making their solution more efficient. The ability of SRFG to offer 3 times better confusion property (degree of ambiguity) and 53.7% better avalanche effect (a small change in input leading to a big change in output) makes BaReNPI better than AES on key parameters like nonlinearity, resiliency, balancedness, propagation characteristics and immunity.
“In the current digital economy, computer system and network security are intended to achieve many purposes including confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation and access control by use of various security algorithms. BaReNPI has opened the path for further improvement of these security algorithms which eventually leads to better digital security and more secure social and economic encounters”, said Dr. G. Geetha, Professor and Head of Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University.
BaReNPI can work as an enabler for the parametric Monte Carlo experimentation with randomization, effective digital display, machine learning and statistical learning environment, CAPTCHA technology and data structure searching techniques.It will also help security professionals and technical analysts in OTP generation for next-generation technology of IoTs. Furthermore, browser security algorithms can also be strengthened with BaReNPI.