A Novel Encryption of Text Messages Using Two Fold Approach

Background: The amount of digital data created and shared via internet has been increasing every day. The number of security threats has also increased due to the vulnerabilities present in the network hardware and software. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques to secure communication in the presence of third parties. Though there are several cryptosystems to secure the information, there is a necessity to introduce new methods in order to protect information from the attackers. Objective: To propose a new encryption method using Binary Tree Traversal (BTT) and XOR operation to protect the text messages. Methods: The proposed method uses both transposition and substitution techniques for converting plaintext into ciphertext. The notion binary tree traversal is adapted as transposition and bitwise XOR operation is used for substitution. Results: The repeating letters appeared in the plaintext are replaced with different cipher letters and placed on different location in the cipher text. Hence, it is infeasible to identify the plaintext message easily. The time taken by the proposed method for encryption is very less. Conclusion: A simple encryption method using binary tree traversals and XOR operation is developed. Encrypting data using binary tree traversals is a different way while compared with other traditional encryption methods. The proposed method is fast, secure and can be used to encrypt short messages in real time applications.