Communications of the ACM
Professor's Signcryption Technology Now An International Standard
Signcryption "will now be the standard worldwide for protecting confidentiality and authenticity during transmissions of digital information," says UNC Charlotte Professor Yuliang Zheng.
Credit: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
After nearly a three-year process, the research efforts of UNC Charlotte's College of Computing and Informatics' Professor, Yuliang Zheng, have been formally recognized as an international standard by the International Organization of Standardization. Zheng invented the revolutionary technology called signcryption and continues his research in the College's Department of Software and Information Systems.
Signcryption is a data security technology by which confidentiality is protected and authenticity is achieved seamlessly at the same time. For example, when logging in to an on-line bank account, signcryption prevents an individual's username and password from being seen by unauthorized individuals and, at the same time, confirms the user's identity for the bank. More traditional means of cyber security make this a more time-consuming, two-step process.
"The adoption of signcryption as an international standard is significant in several ways," Zheng says. "It will now be the standard worldwide for protecting confidentiality and authenticity during transmissions of digital information. This will also allow smaller devices, such as Smartphones and PDAs, 3G and 4G mobile communications, as well as emerging technologies, such as radio frequency identifiers and wireless sensor networks, to perform high-level security functions. And, by performing these two functions simultaneously, we can save resources, be it an individual's time or be it energy, as it will take less time to perform the task."
Zheng adds that the application will also enhance the security and privacy of cloud computing.
News of the adoption by the ISO of signcryption as an international standard comes amidst daily reports of cyber attack and cyber crime around the world.
Zheng is known as the father of the signcryption technology and is internationally recognized as an authority in cryptography and network security. He has published over 200 scholarly articles and books on security and holds several patents in cyber security. His most recent publication, co-authored by Alexander W. Dent, is "Practical Signcryption" (Springer, 2011).
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