Paper 2018/084

Threat-Adjusting Security: BitFlip as an AI-Ready, Post-Quantum cipher

Gideon Samid

Abstract

Generally ciphers project a fixed measure of security, defined by the com- plexity of their algorithms. Alas, threat is variable, and should be met with matching security. It is useless to project insu cient security, and it is wasteful and burden- some to over-secure data. BitFlip comes with threat-adjustable flexibility, established via: (i) smart decoy strategy, (ii) parallel encryption, (iii) uniform letter frequency adjustment – tools which enable the BitFlip user to (a) adjust its ciphertexts to match the appraised threat, and (b) sustain security levels for aging keys. The use of these threat-adjusting tools may be automated to allow (1) AI engines to enhance the security service of the cipher, and (2) to enable remote hard-to-access IoT devices to keep aging keys useful, and preserve precious energy by matching security to the ad-hoc threat level. BitFlip may also be operated in a zero-leakage mode where no attributes of a conversation are disclosed, up to full steganographic levels. BitFlip se- curity is two-dimensional: intractability and equivocation, both may be conveniently increased to meet quantum cryptanalytic attacks.

Note: This submission described applications and advanced research of the BitFlip article published as ePrint Archive 2017/366