A Tweakable Key Alternating Lightweight Cipher for Internet of Things

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) is a global network of uniquely addressable interconnected things, based on standard communication protocols. As the number of devices connected to the IoT escalates, they are becoming a likely target for hackers. Also, the limited resources of IoT devices makes the security on top of the actual functionality of the device. Therefore, the cryptographic algorithm for such devices has to be devised as small as possible. To tackle the resource constrained nature of IoT devices, this article presents a lightweight cryptography algorithm based on a single permutation and iterated Even-Mansour construction. The proposed algorithm is implemented in low cost microcontrollers, thus making it suitable for a wide range of IoT nodes.