Lightweight Cryptography Algorithms for IoT and Embedded Systems

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and embedded systems has introduced new security challenges due to their constrained computational, memory, and power resources. Traditional cryptographic algorithms such as AES and RSA often impose prohibitive overhead, necessitating the development of lightweight cryptography (LWC). This paper reviews major lightweight cryptographic algorithms, compares their performance in constrained environments, highlights standardization efforts such as NIST’s Lightweight Cryptography Project, and discusses open challenges and future research directions. The findings show that lightweight block ciphers such as SPECK, SIMON, PRESENT, and GIFT, and authenticated ciphers like ASCON provide strong security with minimal resource usage, making them suitable for diverse IoT applications.