NEWARK , October 20, 1999 - Mixing a good fastball with a good curve is a key to striking out batters. New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Professor Boris Verkhovsky has managed a similar feat in the world of encryption via a "faster mathematical curve" to encode sensitive data and "strike out" information thieves.

      The professor was recently honored by the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics for the overall "quality" of his work in encryption and his "significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the field," at the 11th Annual Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics last month.

      Verkhovsky, who also chaired two symposia and presented three papers on cryptography during the conference, recently added to these laurels with an improved way to code or encrypt information using a mathematical entity known as elliptic curves.

      Studied for almost 150 years, elliptic curves are not new. But they weren't applied to cryptography until 1985. They permit speedy encryption without loss of cryptoimmunity (security) needed to protect information against unauthorized decryption.

      According to Verkhovsky, elliptic curves enable a cryptologist to create "relatively small block sizes, high speed software and hardware implementations" that permit fast encryption without loss of the cryptoimmunity needed to protect data.

      In short, he says, they offer a high level of security without making encryption so slow and unwieldy that it hampers information flow.

      Despite the encryption speed of elliptic curves, parts of their application require a lot of time and cause delays in communication, the professor notes.

      So Verkhovsky recently developed a set of algorithms (or procedures) that makes them even easier and faster to use, again without loss of cryptoimmunity. He reports that the algorithms are at least 60% faster than the existing subroutines for elliptic curve encryption.

      The new algorithms are a much better solution than adding more computer power to increase speed, notes the professor. "For example, if you increase a computer's power from 500 megahertz to 600, you add only 20% to the speed of your data transmissions."

      To counteract the ever-growing computer power available to information thieves, cryptologists have created ever more cryptoimmune systems, which also slow down data transmission in an information age that demands rapid access to data.

      Notes Verkhovsky, "While the need for countermeasures has grown more acute there's also a need to avoid making encryption systems so complicated or intractable, that they hamper communication."

      Elliptic curve systems were a breakthrough because they are said to offer the same level of cryptographic security as two of the major encryption systems now in use, DSA and RSA, without encumbering data transmission.

      "This translates into greater speed of information flow, savings in the size of the bandwidth needed to send information, lower power requirements and smaller, less costly, hardware processors," says the professor.

      Verkhovsky, who joined NJIT in 1986, had previously been a professor at the University of Colorado. Other university posts have included Charles Dana Professor of Computer Science, University of Bridgeport, and Associate Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University.

      Verkhovsky also has been a member of the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories and Wallace J. Eckert Scientist at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and prior to that worked as a consultant there.

      A native of Russia, Verkhovsky obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science jointly from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, and Latvia State University. He became a group leader of the Academy's Central Institute of Economics and Mathematics after stints at the Research Institute of Computers, Moscow, and the Research Institute of Radio-electronics, Novosibirsk.

      The professor holds several awards for his work as a teacher and researcher in computer science, including the Outstanding Scholastic Contribution Award of the International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics; the Meritorious Award of the International Congress on Applied Systems Research & Cybernetics, and the Research and Development Award of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

      NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in 76 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science.

      Yahoo! Internet Life magazine recently ranked NJIT as America's "most wired" public university, and has ranked it one of the top six "most wired" campuses among both public and private universities for three consecutive years. In addition, U.S. News and World Report's 1999 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the nation's top universities, and Money magazine's Best College Buys 1998 rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools and among the top 100 overall.