End-to-end encryption architecture for enhancing confidentiality and integrity in secure online examination system
Arif Khanarif.sabirkhan@gmail.comDepartment of Computer Science & EngineeringSchool of Engineering Sciences & Technology (SEST)Jamia Hamdard (Deemed to be University)Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, IndiaView full profile → , *Siddhartha Sankar BiswasCorresponding authorssbiswas@jamiahamdard.ac.inDepartment of Computer Science & EngineeringSchool of Engineering Sciences & Technology (SEST)Jamia Hamdard (Deemed to be University)Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, IndiaView full profile → , Bhavya Alankarbalankar@jamiahamdard.ac.inDepartment of Computer Science & EngineeringSchool of Engineering Sciences & Technology (SEST)Jamia Hamdard (Deemed to be University)Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, IndiaView full profile → , Harleen Kaurharleen@jamiahamdard.ac.inDepartment of Computer Science & EngineeringSchool of Engineering Sciences & Technology (SEST)Jamia Hamdard (Deemed to be University)Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, IndiaView full profile → , Sherin Zafarsherin.zafar@jamiahamdard.ac.inDepartment of Computer Science & EngineeringSchool of Engineering Sciences & Technology (SEST)Jamia Hamdard (Deemed to be University)Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, IndiaView full profile →
* Corresponding author · click or hover a name for details
- Received:
- 01 Jan 2026
- Published Online:
- 10 Aug 2026
- Article type:
- Research Article
- Language:
- EN
- Article no.:
- JIOS-2239
- Pages:
- 1–10
Abstract
During online exams, the primary focus is usually on using secure, reliable & nonduplicative communication methods. In contrast, many individuals try to access exam Questions and/or alter the answers given by students who take those exams. In addition to people trying to access examination materials, there are also a number of people who may try and use someone else’s identity to take that exam. The purpose of the proposed architecture discussed in this paper is to provide an end-to-end method of encryption utilizing particle swam optimization (PSO), ChaCha20 such that it can be used to provide better ways of generating keys, producing more randomness with keystreams, and reducing latency time incurred due to encryption during the entire process of taking the exam, from the time that question papers are issued until the students submit their answers. To accomplish this, although the primary means of validating the integrity of the entire exam process was SHA-256, a time-based one-time password was used to verify the user’s identity. Based on experimental results, the proposed architecture demonstrated significant reductions in both encryption/decryption times up to 24% as compared to current encryption methods like AES-256 and RSA-1024, and achieved higher throughput than other existing encryption methods. This indicates that the proposed architecture has a high level of resistance to a range of attack types, including statistical, differential, and man-in-the-middle attacks, and extremely low processing overhead, making it well-suited for large-scale, real-time examination environments.
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References
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