Prof. Oluwakemi Abikoye of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) said on Friday that he has developed a Yoruba language cryptosystem for information protection.
Abikoye, while delivering the university’s 270th Inaugural Lecture titled “Invisible Bouncers in the World of Information Security” stated that a Yoruba language cryptosystem was a computer system.
“It is a system that uses cryptography to encrypt and decrypt Yoruba text.
“Cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications using codes so that only the intended recipients can read and process it.
“The invention is made to carry along the Yoruba-speaking people in the advancement taking place in the world of information technology, linguistics and data security,” she said.
The don, who teaches in the university’s Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, explained that the system involves the encryption and decryption of information written in Yoruba as text.
Abikoye noted that this involves using the Caeser Cipher Algorithm and implementing using Java programming tools.
She said: “We adopted a symmetric encryption algorithm that uses one key for both encryption and decryption and uses digits as its cyphertext.
“This is a novel means of ensuring difficulty in breaking the codes as patterns with digits are not easily recognisable.”
Similarly, the expert in Computer Science explained that messages could be secured before transmission within a messaging system over the internet.
“We implemented the algorithm using the Java programming language. The result showed that the system gives a different cypher text each time encryption is performed, which makes it efficient.
“Due to the increasing security concerns related to data communication over the internet, the Advanced Encryption Standards (AES) is an efficient encryption algorithm that can be used to ensure data security,” she said.
Abikoye disclosed that the AES technique could be used to effectively make textual information meaningless to intruders while still being meaningful to the target receiver.
She advised Nigerians to change the password of their devices every three months.
The expert also called for the use of biometrics and cryptography systems to prevent biometric vulnerabilities.
