Public key cryptography-based security scheme for wireless sensor networks in healthcare

Abstract

The application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in healthcare is one of the most important and rapidly growing areas. One of the most critical security concerns is patients' privacy. Since patients are monitored all the time, authentication of who can access the information, and what information one is authorized to access are indispensable to maintain privacy. In healthcare environments, authentication and access control face a big challenge due to dynamic network topology, mobility, and stringent resource constraints. In this paper, we propose a secure, scalable, and energy-efficient security scheme called Mutual Authentication and Access Control scheme based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (MAACE). MAACE provides mutual authentication where a healthcare professional can authenticate to an accessed node (a PDA or medical sensor) and vice versa. This is to ensure that medical data is not exposed to an unauthorized person. On the other hand, it ensures that medical data sent to healthcare professionals did not originate from a malicious node. By applying elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), MAACE provides a public key approach which is more scalable and requires less memory compared to symmetric key-based schemes. Furthermore, it is practically feasible to implement it on sensor platforms. Security analysis and performance evaluation results are presented and compared to existing schemes to show advantages of the proposed scheme.