MAC Address as a Key for Data Encryption

Abstract

In computer networking, the Media Access Control (MAC) address is a unique value associated with a network adapter. MAC addresses are also known as hardware addresses or physical addresses. TCP/IP and other mainstream networking architectures generally adopt the OSI model. MAC addresses function at the data link layer (layer 2 in the OSI model). They allow computers to uniquely identify themselves on a network at this relatively low level. In this paper, suggested data encryption technique is presented by using the MAC address as a key that is used to authenticate the receiver device like PC, mobile phone, laptop or any other devices that is connected to the network. This technique was tested on some data, visual and numerical measurements were used to check the strength and performance of the technique. The experiments showed that the suggested technique can be used easily to encrypt data that is transmitted through networks.