The rapid growth of sensitive digital data and evolving cyber threats necessitate encryption systems that are both secure and computationally efficient. This paper introduces and advanced secure file encryption system based on a novel Hybrid Iterative Cipher Chaining (HICC) mechanism that combines AES-GSM, ChaCha20, and Poly1305 in multiple rounds to provide a layered security. Additionally, they system integrated dynamic compression, independent metadata encryption, and a dual authentication mechanism that combines a strong user password with a unique four-emoji sequence. A password expiry mechanism further ensures that decryption is only possible withing a defined time window. We present extensive theoretical analysis – including a detailed brute-force time estimate formula and experimental benchmarks across classical desktops, supercomputers, GPU/FPGA clusters, and quantum computing platforms. Finally, we discuss the impact of Grover’s and Shor’s algorithms and outline strategies for integrating post-quantum cryptography.
Pandya et al. (Thu,) studied this question.