For over 3 years this website has not been updated and it was time to give it a face lift!

It is actually quite astonishing to think this website has existed since 1998, 12 years! I guess I am getting older, my hair are getting greyer and there is less of it! One thing that hasn’t change though is my interest in Cryptography.

Because of a busy professional life in the IT Security world I haven’t been able to work on the BUGS algorithm for many years. However, I have recently completed a Master in Information Security at the London Royal Holloway University. I logically chose to work on a cryptography subject for my Master Thesis. This allowed me to spend some time back on the BUGS algorithm and, for the first time, learn some cryptanalysis techniques!

The main subject of my thesis was to give an “Overview of Modern Symmetric-Key Cipher Cryptanalysis Techniques”, as such after a general introduction on cryptography and cryptanalysis I focused on two main cryptanalysis techniques:
Linear and Differential Cryptanalysis
Finally, I started to conduct a cryptanalysis of my BUGS algorithm. Although I still haven’t conducted a full cryptanalysis on BUGS, my early tests seem to indicate the BUGS algorithm, may show some weaknesses if not used with its default settings. On the other hand it seems to be quite secure when default settings are used . However, I would need to pursue those tests further to prove this is correct.

In the process I have also highlighted what I believe could be a new type of cryptanalysis attack:
Unrestricted XOR-Sum Uniqueness Cryptanalysis attack
At this stage this is just a suggested new type of attack and more work is required to find out if this attack is indeed possible and if it offers any value!

So here you have it, this is what I will try to spend some time on in the coming months/years:
– To conduct a full cryptanalysis on BUGS and publish the results
– To investigate my new type of cryptanalysis attack

My MSc Thesis document is available HERE.