The focus of this work is to provide authentication and confidentiality of messages in a swift and cost effective manner to suit the fast growing Internet applications. A nested hash function with lower computational and storage demands is designed with a view to providing authentication as also to encrypt the message as well as the hash code using a fast stream cipher MAJE4 with a variable key size of 128-bit or 256-bit for achieving confidentiality. Both nested Hash function and MAJE4 stream

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... ipher algorithm use primitive computational operators commonly found in microprocessors; this makes the method simple and fast to implement both in hardware and software. Since the memory requirement is less, it can be used for handheld devices for security purposes.