HiveCom: Secure Communications Protocol for Drones based on a Ad Hoc Network

Abstract

"Secure communications are an integral part of networking in the modern era, especially with the growing need of drones for different applications. Single drone operations are the norm, but statistics have shown that networking of drones will be the future for distributed applications, thus, solidifying the need for secure communications between individual drones and between drones and ground control stations. However, with the advancements of quantum computers, existing cryptographic algorithms used by these existing communications algorithms have been rendered vulnerable to attacks. Common algorithms that are based on the integer factorization problem as the primary security reduction fall vulnerable to attacks from quantum computers such as RSA and ECDH. In this study, the author attempts to create a secure communications protocol for drones that can resist attacks against them with existing and quantum computers with the use of legacy and newly standardized quantum-resistant encryption algorithms. The author also explores routing protocols for ad hoc networks on which this protocol is primarily based. With the conducted tests and security reductions, the proposed protocol is proven to be safe against attacks from quantum and legacy computers. It uses certificates to authenticate users and can be used to address attacks against the system such as Man-In-The-Middle attacks. With the use of standardized algorithms, hardware vendors can add support for the individual cryptographic algorithms used by the proposed protocol further improving the performance of the protocol in limited hardware on which this protocol will be widely deployed."