Encryption using Tamil Language

Introduction

In this digital era, we are all using various types of electronic gadgets like mobile phones, computers, laptops, smart watch, smart home and smart devices… etc. which are embed with integrated circuits and some other mechanisms mainly used with Internet.

 Despite the benefits of the internet, there are some drawbacks that need to be taken into account when using it. The main thing it has decreased personal privacy. The vast amount of personal information shared on the internet is putting personal privacy at risk. It’s not just identity theft and track our movements and struck because of the information freely shared. Another major risk is exploitation. Ransomware is another growing threat, where hackers gain control in a wide variety of ways. Victims may have no way to combat this exploitation.

Cryptography is the practice of encoding information to ensure that only the person to whom the message was written can read and process it. Encryption is the process of encoding information to prevent unauthorized access or tampering. A cryptographic key is a string of characters used within an encryption algorithm for altering data so that it appears random. Like a physical key, it locks (encrypts) data so that only someone with the right key can unlock (decrypt) it.

Encryption

The purpose of encryption is to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing data. Encryption is a form of data security in which information is converted to ciphertext. This serves to thwart cybercriminals, who may have used quite sophisticated means to gain access to a corporate network—only to find out that the data is unreadable and therefore useless.

Encryption not only ensures the confidentiality of data or messages but it also provides authentication and integrity, proving that the underlying data or messages have not been altered in any way from their original state. Data needs to be encrypted when it is in two different states: “at rest,” when it is stored, in a database. Another state is “in transit” while it is being accessed or transmitted between parties. [1]

How does Encryption work?

Encryption converts plain text, such as a text message or email, into an unreadable format called ciphertext. This helps protect the confidentiality of digital data either stored on computer systems or transmitted through a network like the internet. 

The information is translated back to its original form when the intended recipient opens the message. This is called decryption.

Fig.1: Encryption

When to use encryption

When there is personal, sensitive, or classified information, it is important to encrypt messages, files, and data exchanged online.

Fig.2: When to use encryption

Types of Encryption

An encryption algorithm is the method used to transform plain text (data) into ciphertext.

Fig3: Types of Encryption

Symmetric Encryption

Symmetric encryption is the preferred method for transmitting data in bulk. Only one Secret Key is used to both cipher and decipher information. Both parties need to have the key used to encrypt the data before they can decrypt it.

Eg: Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), Twofish

Symmetric encryption algorithms are available in two forms:

• Block algorithms: Encrypt a group of plain text symbols as one block.
• Stream algorithms: Convert one symbol of plain text directly into ciphertext. [3]

Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric encryption presents a much stronger option for ensuring the security of information transmitted over the internet. Asymmetric encryption is uses two different but related keys to encrypt and decrypt data. One key is secret and one key is public. The public key is used to encrypt data, and the private key is used to decrypt (and vice versa). Security of the public key is not needed because it is publicly available and can be shared over the internet. 

Eg: Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA), Advanced Encryption Standard(AES),

Encryption in the Cloud – Cloud encryption is a service offered by cloud storage providers in which data is first encrypted using algorithms before being pushed to a storage cloud.

End-to-End Encryption – End-to-end encryption (E2EE) ensures that only the two users communicating with one another can read the messages.

Encryption with Tamil Language

Tamil is one of the longest-surviving, oldest Living, Sacred, classical languages in the world [4]. Tamil is Pronounced as “Tha-mizh” and worshipped as a God. It is an Official Language of Three Countries and speak by many South Asian countries. Each Tamil Letters have standalone meanings. It is a first known language to Humans and language with Independent Origin [5]

A Tamil language encoder is

• proposed to replace the preround transformation of AES
• provide a stronger cryptographic strength than English language
• enhance the strengths of AES for data science applications

Encryption Algorithm for Tamil Language

Tamil Alphabets are of

• 12 vowels (Uyir Ezluthu – m>M>,><>c>C>v>V>I>x>X>xs)
  • Ayutha Ezluthu – /
• 18 Consonants (Mei Ezluthu – f;>q;>r;>Q;>l;>z;>j;>e;>g;>k;>a;>h;>y;>t;>o;>s;>w;>d;)
• Compound Letters – Mei Ezluthu + Uyir Ezluthu  = f; + < = fP , 12 x18 = 216)

Encryption Process:

Columnar Transposition Cipher 

Key: 4

Plain Text : M t z q; f s;;;

Cipher Text : Mfts;zq;

Code:

def split_len(seq,length):

return [seq[i:i+length]

for I in range(0,len(seq),length)]

def encode(key,plaintext):

order = { int (val): num for num, val in enumerate(key)}

ciphertext = ‘ ’

for index in sorted (order.keys()):

            for part in split_len(plaintext, len(key)):

                        try:ciphertext += part[order[index]]

                                    except IndexError:

                                                continue

            return ciphertext

print (encode(‘3214’, ‘Mtzq;fs;’))

Caesar Cipher

Plain Text : fw;wJ if kz; msT

Plain Text:   f; +m – w; – w; +m – j;+c — f;+I – k; +m – z;  m – s;+m – t;+c

         Cipher Text: Q; +< – q; – q;+< – k; +V — Q; +xs – y; +< – , — < f; +< – w; +V

         Cipher Text : Qpq;qPNk nQs yP, <fPNw

The Benefits of Encryption

Encryption has become an enormous asset to organizations, allowing them to confidently offer a more secure experience for employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

• Privacy and Security – This prevents attackers from intercepting and accessing sensitive data.
• Data integrity – prevent malicious behavior such as on-path attacks.
• Regulations – allows organizations to protect data and maintain privacy in accordance with industry regulations and government policy.
• Secure Internet Browsing – keeps users safe while browsing the internet. With encryption, users feel safer entering personal information into webpages and carrying out financial or e-commerce transactions.
• Encryption Keeps Sensitive Data Safe – personal and professional data is safe from misuse or compromise. 

Encryption Challenges

Attackers will still attack even when they know that data or devices are encrypted. They figure that with some effort, they might get through Such brute force attacks. thousands or even millions of guesses, they will figure out the key for decryption. [2]

Conclusion:

The encryption using Tamil Characters is most efficient way to encrypt than English characters. This paper just dealt with study of transposition encoding using tamil characters and many more ways using AES and other Encryption algorithms. To increases the privacy in transferring the data or message and other communication process. This technique doesn‟t protect any data from attacks, but the security of the cipher text will be stronger and hard to crack the information by the hackers. Therefore, based on this empirical study, the Tamil language could offer cryptographic strengths to AES-based confidentiality protection and enhance cybersecurity requirements. It can also support message authentication and integrity requirements. 

References:

[1] Neil Koblitz, “A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography”, 2nd edition, published by      Springer-Verlag, New York, 1994

[2] M.Rajendiran, K.Selvam , N.Ranjith Kumar, T.Venkatesh,“English Encryption Technique Using Multilanguage” , International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT) Vol. 2 Issue 3, March – 2013

[3] https://us.norton.com/blog/privacy/what-is-encryption

[4]Subramaniam, T., Pal, U., Premaretne, H., &Kodikara, N. (2012).Holistic recognition of handwritten Tamil words.In 2012 Third International Conference on Emerging Applications of Information Technology (pp. 165-169).IEEE.

[5] https://www.tridindia.com/language-facts/facts-about-tamil-language