Indian scientist makes encryption 40 percent faster

Bangalore: An Indian scientist has developed the fastest method to encrypt the hard disk of a computer. Encrypting helps in keeping the data on hard disk secure even from an attack by hackers. "From a practical point of view, the requirement is actually to achieve both speed and security. Otherwise, encryption and decryption may take so much time that software which runs on computer become unacceptably slow. And, in the current state of the art, this work provides the fastest known algorithm for disk encryption," claims Palash Sarkar, creator of this unique algorithm and Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata.

The new algorithm encrypts the data 30-40 percent faster than the previous ones. The results of the research will appear in October 2009 issue of the 'IEEE Transactions on Information Theory', one of the top research journals in the field of transmission, processing and utilization of information.

Sarkar claims that this is the fastest method to encrypt hard disk and says that he has scientific evidence to prove it. "One has to see this in the context of the anonymous and strict review process of the journal 'IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'. The reviewers allowed this claim to stand because I could scientifically justify it in the paper. A hollow claim would have been struck down by the reviewers," he added.