Shalabh Agarwal

Green Computing - A New Horizon of Energy Efficiency and Electronic Waste Minimization: A Global Perspective

Due to tremendous growth of Industrial activities throughout the globe, the climate of the earth is gradually changing. The Increase awareness of climate change and more concern for the environment, has forced the big industries to review their environmental credentials. The Global IT sector, for example, accounts for between two and three percent of the worlds total carbon dioxide emissions which contribute towards global warming and climate change. So if the IT companies are increasing exponentially then the global warming will be more and more. Keeping all these facts the companies throughout the world are now paying more attention to Green IT as an initiative towards cost savings and a greener environment. However, a significant percentage of total population of the globe unaware of the various good practices in ICT towards Green IT. In the present work the authors tried to make a systematic study on the issues of climate change and also explore green computing from the business and IT perspective, and also to find the best practices of green computing into the users of ICT.

Issues of Privacy and Security in the Role of Software in Smart Cities

Throughout the evolution of cities, the very structure of what defines a city has been changing. There has been a huge amount of advancement from the ancient settlements to modern metropolitans and now the next step in the evolution of cities is here - smart cities. Smart cities have come up to counter act the ills of the industrial cities that produce a many bad side effects. Smart cities have been known to be environment friendly, better organized, have better mobility, and a more competent economy. In meeting these necessary objectives, the role of software can make the smart city more integrated and functional as a whole. But the use of smart software, as we call it, can pose problems pertaining to the security and integrity of the smart citys data and privacy. Therefore the need arises to understand and evaluate the concerns of security and privacy that come up with smart software before they can be used in full scale. This paper concentrates on these issues.

New Data Hiding Algorithm in MATLAB Using Encrypted Secret Message

In the present work the authors have introduced a new method for hiding any encrypted secret message inside a cover file. For encrypting secret message the authors have introduced a new bit exchange algorithm. For hiding secret message Nath et al(1,2,3) have already proposed various methods. Here the authors modified the steganographic method. Instead of changing the LSB of the cover file at a stretch the authors proposed to change LSB and LSB+3 bits and changing alternate bytes of the cover file. It means to hide one byte of secret message the authors used 8 bytes of the cover file but out of 8 bytes 4 bytes were modified in LSB and LSB+3 bit positions and the alternate bytes remain unchanged. The secret message was encrypted by using a simple bit exchange method before the actual embedding process starts. The number of times the secret message to be encrypted using bit exchange method can be controlled by the user. The proposed bit exchange method is reversible that means the way the encryption done the decryption to be done in reverse way. The entire work was done in MATLAB. The authors applied the present steganography algorithm on different cover files such as image file, audio file, video file, word file, Excel file, Power point file,.exe file and in every case the result found was satisfactory. To embed any secret message inside a cover file the user has to enter a password and the same password to be used to unhide the secret message. The authors propose that this method could be most appropriate for hiding any file in any standard or non standard cover file such as word, excel, .ppt, .exe, image, audio, video files. The hidden message is encrypted using some bit exchange method and hence it will be almost impossible for the intruder to unhide the actual secret message from the embedded cover file. This method may be used for sending some secret key to someone over mail as the intruder may not be able to unhide and to decrypt the secret message.

Advanced steganographic approach for hiding encrypted secret message in LSB,LSB+1,LSB+2 and LSB+3 bits in non standard cover files

In digital steganography normally image, audio or video files are the standard cover files or the host files for embedding secret message such as text, image, audio or video. Nath et al.(2) explored the standard method for hiding secret message inside standard cover files such as image, audio or video files. In the present work we have shown how we can hide secret message in encrypted form in some non standard cover files such as .exe, .com, .pdf, .doc, .xls, .mdb, .ppt files. However, the size of the secret message must be very small in comparison to cover file. The secret message is converted to encrypted form using MSA algorithm(2) and then we hide the encrypted message inside the non standard cover file. To hide encrypted secret message we insert the 8 bits in 2 consecutive bytes of cover file in LSB, LSB+1, LSB+2 and LSB+3 positions. This method could be very effective to hide some information in some executable file. To make the entire process secured we have introduced the password when we hide message and while encrypting the secret message we have to input some text_key. While hiding secret message in cover file we embed 1 byte information in two consecutive bytes of the cover file. There is a risk factor that it may damage the cover file in such a way that the embedded cover file may not behave in proper way as it was behaving before insertion of secret message. However, there is one advantage that we can embed more data in a cover file. We propose that our new method could be most appropriate for hiding any file in any non-standard cover file such as executable file such as .EXE or .COM file, compiler, MS-Office files, Data Base files such as .MDB, .PDF file. Our method will now give open challenge to all user that it is possible to hide any small secret message inside in any non standard cover files. The present work shows that we can hide information in almost all files except pure text or ASCII file. The only restriction is the size of secret message should be extremely small in comparison to cover file. The present method may be implemented in digital water marking in any legal electronic documents, Bank data transactions, in government sectors, in defense, in schools and colleges.

Confidential Encrypted Data Hiding and Retrieval Using QR Authentication System

Now, security and authenticity of data is a big challenge. To solve this problem, we propose an innovative method to authenticate the digital documents. In this paper, we propose a new method, where the marks obtained by a candidate will also be encoded in QR Code TM in encrypted form, so that if an intruder tries to change the marks in the mark sheet then he can not do that in the QR Code TM, because the encryption key is unknown to him. In this method, we encrypt the mark sheet data using the TTJSA encryption algorithm. The encrypted marks are entered inside QR code and that QR code is also printed with the original data of the mark sheet. The marks can then be retrieved from the QR code and can be decrypted using TTJSA decryption algorithm and then it can be verified with marks already there in the mark sheet.

Ultra Encryption Standard (UES) Version-IV: New Symmetric key Cryptosystem with bit-level columnar Transposition and Reshuffling of bits

The present paper is an extension of the previous work of the authors i.e. UES version-II and III. Roy et al recently developed few efficient encryption methods such as UES version-I, Modified UES-I, UES version-II, UES version-III. Nath et al developed some methods such as TTJSA, TTSJA and DJMNA which are most suitable methods to encrypt password or any small message. The introduction of multiple feedbacks in TTJSA and TTSJA it was found that the methods were free from any brute force attack or differential attack or simple plain text attack. The authors proposed the present method i.e. Ultra Encryption Standard Version-IV. It is a Symmetric key Cryptosystem which includes multiple encryption, bit-wise reshuffling method and bit-wise columnar transposition method. In the present work the authors have performed the encryption process at the bit-level to achieve greater strength of encryption. In the result section the spectral analysis is done on repeated characters. The authors proposed method i.e. UES-IV can be used to encrypt short message, password or any confidential key.

Desktop Virtualization and Green Computing Solutions

Greecomputing is now more than just being environmentally responsible. It is also the exercise of utilizing optimal IT resources in a more efficient way. It is realized by the computer professionals and also by the Scientists that one of the key enablers of Green computing is virtualisation. Virtual computing and management will enable toward environmentally sustainable ICT infrastructure. The desktop virtualisation enables to utilise the untapped processing power of today’s high-power PCs and storage devices. The same or improved performance can be delivered with reduced operating expenses, a smaller carbon footprint and significantly curtailed greenhouse gas emissions. In this work the authors have made a complete study on Desktop virtualisation, Thin client architecture, and its role in Green computing.

Ultra Encryption Algorithm (UEA): Bit level Symmetric key Cryptosystem with Randomized Bits and Feedback Mechanism

The present paper proposes a new cryptographic algorithm called Ultra Encryption Algorithm (UEA). Nath et al recently developed few efficient encryption methods such as UES version-I, Modified UES-I, UES version-II, TTJSA, DJMNA Nath et. al showed that TTJSA and DJMNA is most suitable methods to encrypt password or any small message. The name of the present method is Ultra Encryption Algorithm (UEA) as it is a Symmetric key Cryptosystem which includes multiple encryption, advanced bit-wise randomization, new serial feedback generation and bit-wise encryption technique with feedback. Evidenly, in the result section the authors have shown the spectral analysis of encrypted text as well as plain text to show the effectiveness of the bit-level algorithm. The spectral analysis reveal that the present module offers encryption that is free from repetitive text patterns and strong enough against the standard cryptographic attacks.

Green Computing and Green Technology in e-Learning, Corporate, Business and IT Sectors

E-learning is the use of technology to enable people to learn something anywhere and anytime. The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means involves the use of a computer or electronic device such as a mobile phone in some way to make available training, educational or learning material. E-learning methods have drastically changed the educational environment and also reduced the use of papers and ultimately reduce the production of carbon footprint. E-learning methodology is an example of Green computing. Green Computing or Green IT refers to the study and practice of using computing resources in an eco-friendly manner in order to tone down the environmental impacts of computing. It is the practice of using computing resources in an energy efficient and environmentally friendly manner. To reduce unnecessary energy consumption due to hazardous materials has become a major topic of concern today. In the present paper the authors have discussed how Green Computing can be incorporated into different institutions, corporate/business sectors or may be in various IT companies.

Design and Analysis of e-Journal Management Systems: SXC International Journal of Advanced Computing Sciences (SXC-IJACS)

The immense progress in Information Technology has accelerated its use in the domains of management. In the fields of academic publishing too, it has had its great influence. With the advent of the client-server based models of computing and the World Wide Web, the whole process merely reduces to typing out the document on the computer, a series of mouse clicks and receiving information via email. Not only does this save the cost of paper publications, it also saves the valuable time of both the publishers and the authors. By making the actual publication process quite convenient, easy and accessible, it helps in shifting the focus of the publishers more onto the quality and content of the journals themselves. Numerous publishing companies have either developed or acquired such IT systems for these tasks, notably [26, 27]. This paper makes a systematic case study of the general functions that such a system has to demonstrate, with SXC-IJACS as an example. A paper on the more technical aspects of the work [Bhattacharyya et. al., 2012] has been previously published at an international conference [19, 29].