Improving Network Security Using Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION
Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) which is one of the variants of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) proposed as an alternative to established public key systems such as Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) and Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA), have recently gained a lot of attention in industry and academia.
The main reason for the attractiveness of ECDSA is the fact that there is no sub exponential algorith known to solve the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem on a properly chosen elliptic curve. Hence, it takes full exponential time to solve while the best algorithm known for solving the underlying integer factorization for RSA and discrete logarithm problem in DSA both take sub exponential time. The key generated by the implementation is highly secured and it consumes lesser bandwidth because of small key size used by the elliptic curves. Significantly smaller parameters can be used in ECDSA than in other competitive systems such as RSA and DSA but with equivalent levels of security.
Some benefits of having smaller key size include faster computation time and reduction in processing power, storage space and bandwidth. This makes ECDSA ideal for constrained environments such as pagers, PDAs, cellular phones and smart cards. These advantages are especially important in other environments where processing power, storage space, bandwidth, or power consumption are lacking.
Elliptic curve cryptography is most secure and powerful Cryptosystem in all Public key Cryptography. ECC is stronger Cryptosystem then other cryptosystem as compared to RSA and DSA. As ECC require Short key sizes as compared, ECC require only 224 bits where RSA and  DSA require 2048 bits, in this paper i have overview about ECC as well as describe the Implementation of ECDSA
Over the last five years, elliptic curve cryptography has moved from being an interesting theoretical alternative to being a cutting edge technology adopted by an increasing number of companies. There are two reasons for this new development: one is that ECC is no longer new, and has withstood a generation of attacks; second, in the growing wireless industry, its advantages over RSA have made it an attractive security alternative. Wireless Internet mail industry leaders such as Qualcomm have embraced ECC, as well as other major companies in the wireless industry such as Motorola, Docomo, and RIM. Major computer companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard are all investing in ECC. The U.S. government is backing the use of ECC as well, with NSA creating the security requirements for wireless devices connecting to the military, and NIST providing standardized curves for use in a range of applications of ECC. Smartcard companies such as Gemplus are also using ECC to improve their products’ security. Wireless devices are rapidly becoming more dependent on security features such as the ability to do secure email, secure Web browsing, and virtual private networking to corporate networks, and ECC allows more efficient implementation of all of these features.
In this research a detailed examination of the digital signature generation and verification as well as encryption and decryption times for both the ECC using the ECDSA algorithm and RSA also show that ECC algorithm is better compare to other security systems and further provides a supporting evidence of its efficiency over RSA algorithm. Its efficiency, effectiveness and ease of use in security makes it an attractive scheme and could therefore serve as an alternative to other cryptography. The above properties could enhance e-commerce security on the Internet and hence, make electronic transaction and other e-business to be carried out with little or no fear of hackers.
In this paper we have presented an architecture and efficient hardware implementation of ECDSA in signing mode. We reported the performance of our implementation in terms of occupied area and operating frequency. Making a comparison with results of related works, we can see that our solution provides best results.
Having carried out this research, I will recommend further research on Elliptic Curve Cryptography using secure shell algorithm to secure the network since the world is now on digital (Computer) age.