Home // International Journal On Advances in Security, volume 4, numbers 1 and 2, 2011 // View article

Genomics-based Security Protocols: From Plaintext to Cipherprotein

Authors:
Harry Shaw
Sayed Hussein
Hermann Helgert

Keywords: HMAC; keyed Hash Message Authentication Code; Cryptography; DNA; PKI; public key infrastructure; MANET; cipherprotein; epigenetics; security architecture

Abstract:
The evolving nature of the internet will require continual advances in authentication and confidentiality protocols. Nature provides some clues as to how this can be accomplished in a distributed manner through molecular biology. Cryptography and molecular biology share certain aspects and operations that allow for a set of unified principles to be applied to problems in either venue. A concept for developing security protocols that can be instantiated at the genomics level is presented. A DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) inspired hash code system is presented that utilizes concepts from molecular biology. It is a keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) capable of being used in secure mobile ad hoc networks. It is targeted for applications without an available public key infrastructure. Mechanics of creating the HMAC are presented as well as a prototype HMAC protocol architecture. Security concepts related to the implementation differences between electronic domain security and genomics domain security are discussed. This paper demonstrates a practical path to a composable, standardized biological internet security protocol that encompasses biological and computing domains.

Pages: 106 to 117

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2011. Used with permission.

Publication date: September 15, 2011

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2636