Data and control encryption

• US 8,379,847 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bell, Robert H. Jr., Capps, Louis Bennie Jr., Shapiro, Michael Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Song, Hosuk
• Application Number:
  US12/828,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20120002812A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 380/28, 380/239, 380262-265, 380/268, 380/270, 380/277, 380/44, 380/46, 713/189
• US Class Current: 380/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/125 Parallelization or pipelining, e.g. for accelerating processing of cryptographic operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/06 the encryption apparatus using shift registers or memories for block-wise or stream coding, e.g. DES systems or RC4; Hash functions; Pseudorandom sequence generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0618 Block ciphers, i.e. encrypting groups of characters of a plain text message using fixed encryption transformation

Abstract

Secure communication of data between devices includes encrypting unencrypted data at a first device by reordering unencrypted bits provided in parallel on a device bus, including data and control bits, from an unencrypted order to form encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by a key. The encrypted data may be transmitted to another device where the encrypted data is decrypted by using the key to order the encrypted bits to restore the unencrypted order thereby to reform the unencrypted data.

Claims

1. A method of encryption, comprising:

receiving on a device bus of a first device unencrypted data including a plurality of unencrypted bits, wherein the device bus of the first device includes a first plurality of wires defining a plurality of unencrypted bit positions, and wherein each of the unencrypted bits is provided on one of the first plurality of wires in parallel in an unencrypted order;

reordering, by the first device, the unencrypted bits provided on the device bus of the first device to form encrypted data, wherein the encrypted data includes a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by a key, wherein the key defines a random encryption pattern;

transmitting the encrypted data to a second device; and

providing a seed at the first device and at the second device and using the seed at the first device and at the second device to generate the key at the first device and at the second device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at the second device the encrypted data; and

ordering at the second device the encrypted bits using the key to reform the unencrypted data on a device bus of the second device by restoring the order of the encrypted bits to the unencrypted order of the unencrypted bits, wherein the device bus of the second device includes a second plurality of wires, and wherein each of the unencrypted bits is provided on one of the second plurality of wires.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

periodically providing a new key to the first device and to the second device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unencrypted data includes data bits and control bits, and wherein reordering the unencrypted bits comprises:

placing at least one control bit into a position of a data bit in the unencrypted order to form the encrypted data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the unencrypted bits comprises:

for each unencrypted bit, placing the unencrypted bit in a position in the encrypted order selected from a subset of all positions in the encrypted order.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein reordering the unencrypted bits comprises:

reordering the unencrypted bits among a number of positions in the encrypted order that is large than a number of unencrypted bits.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the encrypted data comprises:

transmitting the encrypted bits via a transmission method selected from a group of transmission methods consisting of transmitting the encrypted bits in parallel on a plurality of wires, transmitting the encrypted bits in series on a single wire, and transmitting the encrypted bits wirelessly.

8. A device, comprising:

a device bus including a plurality of wires defining a plurality of unencrypted bit positions;

a multiplexer coupled to the device bus and adapted to reorder a plurality of unencrypted bits in unencrypted data on the device bus to form encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by a key, wherein each of the unencrypted bits is provided on one of the plurality of wires in parallel in an unencrypted order, and wherein the key defines a random encryption pattern; and

a transmitter adapted to transmit the encrypted data to a second device, wherein a seed is provided at the device and at the second device, and wherein the seed is used at the device and at the second device to generate the key at the device and at the second device.

9. The device of claim 8, further comprising a receiver adapted to receive encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in an encrypted order defined by the key and a multiplexer adapted to order the encrypted bits using the key to reform unencrypted data including a plurality of unencrypted bits in an unencrypted order.

10. The device of claim 8, further comprising:

a random pattern generator adapted to generate the key using the seed.

11. The device of claim 8, wherein the unencrypted data includes data bits and control bits, and wherein the multiplexer is adapted to reorder the unencrypted bits by placing at least one control bit into a position of a data bit in the unencrypted order to form the encrypted data.

12. The device of claim 8, wherein the multiplexer is adapted to reorder the unencrypted bits by positioning each unencrypted bit in a position in the encrypted order selected from a subset of all positions in the encrypted order.

13. The device of claim 8, wherein the multiplexer is adapted to reorder the unencrypted bits among a number of positions in the encrypted order that is larger than a number of unencrypted bits.

14. The device of claim 8, wherein the transmitter is adapted to transmit the encrypted bits via a transmission medium selected from a group of transmission media consisting of a plurality of wires carrying the encrypted bits in parallel, a single wire carrying the encrypted bits in series, and a wireless transmission medium.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage device having stored thereon computer program instructions for controlling a data processing system, comprising:

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device for controlling the data processing system to generate control signals to reorder a plurality of unencrypted bits provided in parallel in an unencrypted order forming unencrypted data using a key to form encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by the key, wherein the key defines a random encryption pattern; and

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device for controlling the data processing system to control transmission of the encrypted data to a second data processing system, wherein a seed is provided at the data processing system and at the second data processing system, and wherein the seed is used at the data processing system and at the second data processing system to generate the key at the data processing system and at the second data processing system.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device for controlling the data processing system to generate control signals using the key to order encrypted data including a plurality of encrypted bits in parallel in an encrypted order defined by the key to reform unencrypted data including a plurality of unencrypted bits in parallel in an unencrypted order.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

computer program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device for controlling the data processing system to generate the key using the seed.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the unencrypted data includes data bits and control bits in parallel, and wherein the computer program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device comprise computer program instructions for controlling the data processing system to generate control signals using the key to reorder the unencrypted bits by placing at least one control bit into a position of a data bit in the unencrypted order to form the encrypted data.