A DNA-INSPIRED ENCRYPTION METHODOLOGY FOR SECURE, MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORKS (MANET) Harry C. Shaw and Sayed Hussein NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Keywords: Encryption, DNA computing, MANET, Biomimetic, Molecular Cryptography, Steganography, Computational Biology. Abstract: Molecular biology models such as DNA evolution can provide a basis for proprietary architectures that achieve high degrees of diffusion and confusion and resistance to cryptanalysis. Proprietary encryption products can serve both large and small applications and can exist at both application and network level. This paper briefly outlines the basis of the proprietary encryption mechanism which uses the principles of DNA replication and steganography (hidden word cryptography) to produce confidential data. The foundation of the approach includes: organization of coded words and messages using base pairs organized into genes, an expandable genome consisting of DNA-based chromosome keys, and a DNA-based message encoding, replication, and evolution process. Such an encryption model provides “Security by Obscurity”. 1 INTRODUCTION Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) require the ability to distinguish trusted peers, and transmit and receive information confidentially, yet tolerate the ingress and egress of nodes on an unscheduled, unpredictable basis. Because the networks by their very nature are mobile, self-organizing and self assembling, use of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), X.509 certificates, RSA and nonce exchanges becomes problematic if the ideal of MANET is to be achieved. The use of evolutionary computing and a DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) inspired approach are key in developing true MANET architectures. Future network organizations could include corporations, retail outlets, financial institutions organized into self-assembling MANETs of convenience, entering and leaving the network as necessary. Such networks might be better served by encryption approaches not widely available to the public. This paper presents a new encryption technique which utilizes DNA-inspired coding, a dynamic fitness algorithm and trust metric vision for ad-hoc routing, and a rapidly evolving basis of encryption. Because of the dynamic, evolutionary nature of this approach, potential intruders must continually intercept decoding instructions between source and destination. Missing one generation of genome decryption information seriously corrupts the decryption process. Missing multiple generations eventually renders previous decryption analyses useless. 2 BACKGROUND OF DNA CRYPTOGRAPHY The use of DNA as a cryptographic medium is not new. DNA encryption systems are one of the paths taken in the field of molecular computing. Systems using DNA as a one-time code pad (Gehani, 1999) in a steganographic approach have been described. An image compression –encryption system using a DNA-based alphabet (Bourbakis, 1997) was demonstrated including a genetic algorithm based compression scheme. Schemes utilizing DNA encryption utilizing dummy sequences of DNA have been published (Leier, 2000). The steganographic approach is highly desirable because DNA provides a natural template for the hidden message approach (Clelland, 1999). Clelland is a pioneer in this field. It also appears in recent applications such as DNA watermarks (Heider, 2007). 472 C. Shaw H. and Hussein S. (2008). A DNA-INSPIRED ENCRYPTION METHODOLOGY FOR SECURE, MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORKS (MANET). In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing, pages 472-477 DOI: 10.5220/0001068204720477 Copyright c  SciTePress