Lightweight encryption with data and device integrity using NLFSR and PUF for the Internet of Medical Things

Abstract

Nowadays the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is in top demand; they communicate with each other in an IoT network, but there are various security issues including privacy preservation, data and device integrity, and authentication. The IoMT devices have challenges like limited computational power and resources, so conventional techniques are not suitable for them. This paper presents a lightweight stream cipher to ensure privacy protection, data integrity, and device integrity using a message authentication code (MAC). The stream cipher is designed using a nonlinear feedback shift register (NLFSR). The cipher is associated with a MAC generated by concatenating a physical unclonable function (PUF) response and the hash of the plaintext to protect the device and data integrity. The use of NLFSR and PUF makes the proposed scheme robust and lightweight for resource-constrained devices like MIoT. To evaluate the quality of the cipher the NIST 800-22 statistical test suite (NIST STS) is used, and results are compared with existing stream ciphers like Rivest cipher 4 (RC4), RC4 based on chaotic mapping (RCCM), and product algebra RCCM (PARCCM). All the tests and comparisons were performed using a Heart Disease Dataset. The scheme ensures the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive medical data which are critical for protecting patient privacy and regulatory compliance. The proposed scheme can also resist cloning attacks on the IoMT devices.