Scalability evaluation of block cipher modes of AES standard

Abstract

Information security has attracted a growing interest due to the unprecedented rise of hacking activities. Cryptography plays a major role in information security against malicious attacks on confidentiality, integrity and authentication. Several symmetric-key cryptographic algorithms and standards have been proposed over years. With the emergence of Internet of Things and sensor networks, the volume of machine-generated data is increasing. Encryption/decryption algorithms can consume a considerable amount of computing resources such as memory and CPU time, which are critical issues in such limited-power environments. This paper evaluates and compares the scalability of common modes of operation for block ciphers of AES standard according to the recommendation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in terms of encryption time, decryption time, and throughput with a variety of data sizes.