METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTEGRATED CIPHERING AND HASHING

A cryptography unit having a cipher unit and a hash unit coupled in parallel for simultaneous ciphering and hashing. The cipher unit implements a cipher algorithm that operates on a data block having a first predetermined size M. The hash unit implements a hash algorithm on a data block having a second predetermined size N. Buffers of a size Q, where Q is an integer multiple of M and N, are employed to receive the input data into the present invention. A security unit that ensures that the cipher unit and the hash unit operate on the same data block of size Q is also provided.