Using DNA to Develop a Lightweight Symmetric Encryption Method to Encrypt the Data of IoT Devices

The security and integrity of the data generated from the internet of things (IoT) devices transmitted via networks must be preserved. Traditional encryption methods are used to encrypt IoT data, but they require more processing power, which IoT devices lack (CPU, memory, storage). In this research, we proposed a DNA-based lightweight symmetric encryption (DLSE) method with simple operations and flexible multi-encryption rounds to be deployed to various IoT devices. The encryption key of the DLSE method is derived from a DNA random sequence to produce a unique key for each round, making it more difficult for attackers to break. The experiments show that the DLSE method has outstanding performance compared to AES and 3DES, with the best encryption time and the best proportion of distortion at the highest level of security. Moreover, the DLSE method proved efficient and can be adapted to meet IoT devices’ computational resources.