An Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Optimization to Enhance Security in Healthcare Applications

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network that connects a large number of items. Each thing uses sensors to create and gather data from its surroundings and then sends to other objects or a central database through a channel. Keeping and transforming this created data is one of the most difficult tasks in IoT today, and it is one of the top worries of all enterprises that deploy IoT technology. Sensing equipment together with communication, storing, and display devices get benefit from technological advancements in the healthcare sector. Moreover, medical parameters and postoperative days require close observation. Therefore, the most cutting-edge approach to healthcare communication is adopted, which makes use of the Internet of Things (IoT). We can use the Internet of Things to speed changes in the healthcare environment, such as enhancing patient involvement and outcomes and shifting healthcare from reactive to proactive accessibility. Nonetheless, the growth of IoT exposes healthcare practitioners and their patients to new vulnerabilities, risks, and security concerns. However, there is currently a scarcity of research on how to improve IoT security in healthcare. Existing studies tend to concentrate only on the installation of IoT peripherals in a healthcare setting and to include a secure application solution. Because healthcare data and information are extremely sensitive, it is critical to have a secure health IoT application in place. As the IoT gets more widely used in healthcare, there will inevitably be more instances of sensitive patient information being made public. This paper proposes an optimized hashing algorithm with digital certificates to enhance the security. Initially, the health data are collected and preprocessed using normalization. The data are then stored in the IoT device. Here, the digital certificates are used for authentication purpose. The proposed discrete decision tree hashing algorithm (DDTHA) with ant colony optimization (ACO) hashes the unsigned digital certificates. The blowfish algorithm is used for encryption, and the signed digital certificate is obtained which is used for authentication purpose. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated and compared with conventional methodologies to prove the efficiency of the system.