A Cryptographic Algorithm Combining Advanced Encryption Standard and Visual Cryptography

Abstract

With the increased usage of Internet and other online services, most of our personal information is now available online. If such sensitive data falls into wrong hands, it can be misused. Thus, in order to avoid such mishaps, a highly secure cryptographic technique becomes a major requirement. This paper deals with one such algorithm where the advantages of Advanced Encryption (AES) and Visual Cryptography (VC) are combined to make the existing cryptographic algorithm more efficient. The AES algorithm has four steps involved to encrypt or decrypt: AddRound-key, Sub-bytes, Shift rows, and Mix columns. In the Mix columns approach, the area, power and speed need to be conserved to increase efficiency and to execute all steps of the AES judiciously. Additionally, we decrease transmission bandwidth by using a modern algorithm in VC. Furthermore, we aim to achieve the combination of both the algorithms. These intentions are brought about by using ModelSim and Xilinx software as well as the Spartan-3E FPGA kit. In conclusion, our paper aims to put forth a merging algorithm which helps the masses to have secure data.