An Application of Cyclic Codes over GF2 for Data Encryption and Decryption in Smart Grid Communications

There is increase in the number of new types of cyber threats which actualizes the issues of their information transfer. This paper presents a secure encryption and decryption method using cyclic codes, inspired by the One-Time Pad cryptosystem, for smart grid communications. We convert plaintext into binary, chunk it into segments, and pad these to align with a generator polynomial. These segments are then transformed into polynomials, encrypted, and secured with a One-Time Pad. The decryption process reverses these steps, recovering the original plaintext. Our findings show that cyclic codes effectively maintain data integrity and security, demonstrating robustness. In a practical application, we securely transmitted the message "shed load" within a smart grid system. Cyclic codes provided a reliable and efficient means of securing data, accurately reversing the encryption steps and ensuring data fidelity. AES and RSA are more complex to implement compared to the cyclic code encryption scheme. They require more computational resources for encryption and decryption. The cyclic code scheme is conceptually straightforward with polynomial operations. These results underscore the potential of cyclic codes to enhance smart grid communication security, offering a balance of security, efficiency, and robustness.