Nanotechnology and cryptographic protocols: issues and possible solutions

Nanotechnology has provided an immense increment in computational power. This high computational strength is very dangerous for existing cryptographic protocols, and the Data Encryption Standard algorithm is a classic example of that. Thus, it is an urgent requirement that new protocols or mathematical methods be developed for data security that can remain secure from fast modern computers powered by nanotechnology. The authors consider the example of military communication, as data communication security in military communication is a matter of national security. The authors present a new method for message exchange for military communication that has never been presented until now. This novelty creates a hard task for intruders, and the authors use steganography as a supporting tool for cryptography. The security of encrypted data increases when the data are hidden in a carrier file. Nobody knows (except the sender and the intended receiver) that there are some hidden data. The authors compare different algorithms for size restrictions because size is an important factor for steganograms and that is the only chance of guessing that the open file contains something suspicious (hidden encrypted data).