Implementation of Public Key and Secret Key Cryptography on a Local Area Network

Abstract

Cryptography is the art of making communications unintelligible to all except the intended recipients. It provides a means of keeping data secure whether it is stored on a computer or transmitted over a network. A secure computer network must provide protection against unauthorised disclosure, undetected modification, undetected loss or repetition of information, as well as assurances of the correct identity of the sender and receiver of information. Cryptography plays a very important role in providing mechanisms for network security.

This paper introduces a security framework called Ulsecnet, which is concerned with the provision of end-to-end security measures in a local area or global wide network. The paper concentrates on the use of the RSA public key algorithm and the Data Encryption Algorithm,which are used in a hybrid manner in ULsecnet, to implement a number of security services. The empirical performance results achieved in implementing the two algorithms are also presented.