Pertanika J. Sci. & Technol. 25 (4): 1369 - 1380 (2017) SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Journal homepage: http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/ ISSN: 0128-7680 © 2017 Universiti Putra Malaysia Press. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 05 June 2017 Accepted: 23 September 2017 E-mail addresses: gurpreetsodhi123@gmail.com (Sodhi, G. K.), himanshumonga@gmail.com (Monga, H.), er.gurjotgaba@gmail.com (Gaba, G. S.) *Corresponding Author DNA and LCG Based Security Key Generation Algorithm Sodhi, G. K. 1 , Monga, H. 2 and Gaba, G. S. 1 * 1 Discipline of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, India 2 Jan Nayak Ch. Devi Lal Vidyapeeth, Haryana ABSTRACT To ensure reliable and effcient operations of encryption and hash codes, a unique approach of formulating a security key from Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of an individual is presented in this paper. The fusion of DNA sequence with Linear Congruential Generator (LCG) sequence ensures uniqueness in the keys generated and eradicates the problem of duplicate keys. The obtained key is signifcant due to its optimum length and robust algorithm. Simulation results reveal that keys produced thus pass the criteria of being random, by a signifcant coeffcient value. Uniqueness is verifed through avalanche test, which assures generation of a unique key every time. Keywords: Authentication, Biometrics, Confdentiality, DNA, Linear Congruential Generator INTRODUCTION Communication in today’s world focuses on obtaining the data at the desired receiver end, unaltered and retaining its confdentiality from intruders. Security involves authentication, confdentiality and integrity. Integrity means maintaining the trust between two communication ends. As stated by Hao, Anderson, and Daugman, (2006) biometrics is gaining importance these days; biometric features are not only unique but also serves as an authentic representation of an individual. The concept of developing a system which uses a combination of biometrics with factitious intelligence systems to provide high effciency can be seen in the integration of human iris features with cryptography in Hao et al. (2006). A system that works on audio fingerprint is also proposed by several studies (Covell, & Baluja, 2007; Baluja, & Covell, 2007; Ying, Shu, Jing, & Xiao, 2010). Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are also used in various studies (Brown