Performance Evaluation of Lightweight Cryptosystems on Varied File Types in Cyber Physical Systems

Hospital environments are critical in the cyber world because the technologies used there directly impact patients' vital information and the continuity of healthcare. Digital infrastructures such as electronic health records, medical devices and communication systems pose a high risk to patient safety and data privacy. Therefore, cybersecurity in hospitals is a vital requirement to both protect patient privacy and ensure the uninterrupted continuity of healthcare services. Hospitals need secure and efficient encryption methods to protect patient privacy and meet operational requirements when handling large amounts of sensitive data. Traditional encryption methods pose challenges in terms of resource consumption, especially for devices with limited processing power and memory. This paper investigates ChaCha20 and Salsa20 lightweight encryption algorithms in healthcare based on factors such as processing time, memory usage and file type. Five different scenarios were created that can be encountered in a daily hospital environment. In these scenarios, the performance of lightweight encryption algorithms was analyzed. Instead of determining which algorithm is better, the study aims to show which algorithm gives better results in each scenario. ChaCha20 provides stable and reliable performance for small and medium-sized files in resource-constrained environments. Salsa20 performs well for large files and tasks that require fast processing. While both ciphers work effectively in different hospital environment scenarios, systems with cryptographic accelerators are found to significantly improve the performance and scalability of these algorithms. The findings of the study provide valuable insights for the selection and integration of lightweight encryption solutions suitable for different healthcare needs.