Secure Communication Using List Source Coding and Partial Encryption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current secure communication systems face challenges in achieving efficient and reliable data transmission with unconditional secrecy, especially in scenarios where an eavesdropper has unlimited computational resources or partial access to the communication channel, and there is a need for improved information-theoretic metrics to optimize secrecy schemes.
Innovation Solution
The proposed system employs a transmitting module that encodes data using a list source code and encrypts a select portion with a key, ensuring the encoded data cannot be decoded until the encrypted data is received and decrypted by the end user, utilizing a combination of encoding and encryption modules to provide secure communication through a tunable level of secrecy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional encryption schemes are used, then security is provided, but the key size must be at least as large as the message itself to achieve unconditional secrecy
Solution Approach 1:
The message is divided into two parts: a first part that is list source coded and a second part that is encrypted. This segmentation allows the encrypted portion to be smaller than the entire message, reducing the key size requirement while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
List source coding is introduced as an intermediary step between the original message and encryption. This intermediary process compresses the message into a list of possible messages, reducing the entropy that needs to be protected by encryption and thus reducing the required key size.
2Quantity of substance
If list source coding is applied to compress the message, then the encoded message size is reduced, but the decoding complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The decoding process is segmented into two independent steps: first decoding the list source coded portion to obtain a list of candidate messages, then using the decrypted second part to identify the correct message from the list. This segmentation makes the overall complexity manageable by breaking it into simpler sub-tasks.
3Reliability
If a larger portion of the message is encrypted, then security is improved, but transmission time and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of encrypting the entire message, only a partial portion (the second part) is encrypted after list source coding. This partial action approach provides sufficient security while reducing the time and computational resources required for encryption and decryption operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Secrecy scheme systems and associated methods using list source codes for enabling secure communications in communications networks are provided herein. Additionally, improved information-theoretic metrics for characterizing and optimizing said secrecy scheme systems and associated methods are provided herein. One method of secure communication comprises receiving a data file at a first location, encoding the data file using a list source code to generate an encoded file, encrypting a select portion of the data file using a key to generate an encrypted file, and transmitting the encoded file and the encrypted file to an end user at a destination location, wherein the encoded file cannot be decoded at the destination location until the encrypted file has been received and decrypted by the end user, wherein the end user possesses the key.