An Improved Two-Layer Authentication Scheme for Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) comprises a number of sensor nodes and the portable mobile device such as smartphone. It is used to monitor the physical condition and provide a reliable healthcare system. Utilizing the wireless communication network, sensor nodes collect the physiological data of one patient to the portable mobile device and the latter analyzes and transmits them to the application providers. Therefore, the personal data confidentiality and user privacy are cores of WBANs. Recently, Shen et al. presented a multi-layer authentication protocol for WBANs, which is lightweight and much easier to implement. However, we observe that their authentication between sensor nodes and the portable mobile device could ensure the forward security property only when the sensor nodes are changed (add or delete). When the sensor nodes are constant, the security property is not satisfied. Meanwhile, the authentication between the portable mobile device and application provider is prone to mutual impersonation attack, so the critical goal of mutual authentication can not be achieved. In this paper, an improved two-layer authentication scheme is proposed to remove the flaws. The analysis shows that our method is more secure and could withstand various attacks.     

无线医疗传感器网络隐私保护技术研究

医疗卫生领域是无线传感器网络的一个热点应用领域,针对无线医疗传感器网络中存在的隐私保护问题,根据不同的数据操作需求,对其隐私保护研究现状进行了综述,说明了关键实现技术,同时提出了未来可能的发展趋势和研究方向。     

Energy-aware Gateway Selection for Increasing the Lifetime of Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks

A Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN) is composed of a set of sensor nodes, placed on, near or within a human body. WBASNs opt to continuously monitor the health conditions of individuals under medical risk, e.g., elders and chronically ill people, without keeping them in a hospital or restraining their motion. A WBASN needs to stay connected to local or wide area networks using wireless technologies in order to send sensor readings to a medical center. The WBASN nodes are implanted within the human body and would thus have limited energy supply. Since the mission of the WBASN is very critical, increasing the lifetime of nodes is essential in order to maintain both practicality and effectiveness. This paper presents a new Gateway Selection Algorithm (GSA) that factors in the use of energy harvesting technologies and dynamically picks the most suitable WBASN node that serves as a gateway to other wireless networks. The goal of GSA is to balance the load among the nodes by adaptively changing the gateway node in WBASN depending on the energy reserve of nodes. Computer modeling and simulations of the proposed GSA are carried out using OPNET. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed GSA approach.     

Medical cyber-physical systems: A survey

Medical cyber-physical systems (MCPS) are healthcare critical integration of a network of medical devices. These systems are progressively used in hospitals to achieve a continuous high-quality healthcare. The MCPS design faces numerous challenges, including inoperability, security/privacy, and high assurance in the system software. In the current work, the infrastructure of the cyber-physical systems (CPS) are reviewed and discussed. This article enriched the researches of the networked Medical Device (MD) systems to increase the efficiency and safety of the healthcare. It also can assist the specialists of medical device to overcome crucial issues related to medical devices, and the challenges facing the design of the medical device’s network. The concept of the social networking and its security along with the concept of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are addressed. Afterward, the CPS systems and platforms have been established, where more focus was directed toward CPS-based healthcare. The big data framework of CPSs is also included.     

A Mutual Authentication Framework for Wireless Medical Sensor Networks

Wireless medical sensor networks (WMSN) comprise of distributed sensors, which can sense human physiological signs and monitor the health condition of the patient. It is observed that providing privacy to the patient’s data is an important issue and can be challenging. The information passing is done via the public channel in WMSN. Thus, the patient, sensitive information can be obtained by eavesdropping or by unauthorized use of handheld devices which the health professionals use in monitoring the patient. Therefore, there is an essential need of restricting the unauthorized access to the patient’s medical information. Hence, the efficient authentication scheme for the healthcare applications is needed to preserve the privacy of the patients’ vital signs. To ensure secure and authorized communication in WMSN, we design a symmetric key based authentication protocol for WMSN environment. The proposed protocol uses only computationally efficient operations to achieve lightweight attribute. We analyze the security of the proposed protocol. We use a formal security proof algorithm to show the scheme security against known attacks. We also use the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulator to show protocol secure against man-in-the-middle attack and replay attack. Additionally, we adopt an informal analysis to discuss the key attributes of the proposed scheme. From the formal proof of security, we can see that an attacker has a negligible probability of breaking the protocol security. AVISPA simulator also demonstrates the proposed scheme security against active attacks, namely, man-in-the-middle attack and replay attack. Additionally, through the comparison of computational efficiency and security attributes with several recent results, proposed scheme seems to be battered.     

A Privacy Preservation Secure Cross Layer Protocol Design for IoT Based Wireless Body Area Networks Using ECDSA Framework

Internet of Things (IoT) provides the collection of devices in different applications in which Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is placed an crucial role. The WBAN is a wireless sensor network consisting of sensor nodes that is collected from IoT which is implanted in the human body to remotely monitor the patient’s physiological signals without affecting their routine work. During emergency situations or life-threatening situations there is a need for a better performance to deliver the actual data with an efficient transmission and there is still a challenge in efficient remote monitoring. So, in this paper an application for cross layer protocol design architecture of Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) has been proposed. It replaces the protocol architecture of WBAN (IEEE 802.15.6), WMAN (IEEE 802.16), and 3G, WLAN (IEEE 802.11) or wired networks. The lightweight secure system provides secure data transmission and access control mechanisms by using ECDA-based proxy signature algorithm. The efficiency of the system is implemented using simulation models that were developed using NS-2, and the results obtained shows an optimum solution in terms of delay, PDR, throughput, jitter, packet transmission time, dropping ratio and packet delivery. The viability of the methodology proposed is illustrated by the response.     

Towards Improved Healthcare Performance: Examining Technological Possibilities and Patient Satisfaction with Wireless Body Area Networks

This paper investigates the benefits of using less intrusive wireless technologies for heart monitoring. By replacing well established heart monitoring devices (i.e. Holter) with wireless ECG based Body Area Networks (BAN), improved healthcare performance can be achieved, reflected in (1) high quality ECG recordings during physical activities and (2) increased patient satisfaction. A small scale clinical trial was conducted to compare both technologies and the results illustrate that the wireless ECG monitor was able to detect ECG signals intended for arrhythmia diagnostics. Furthermore, from a patient’s perspective, both technologies were evaluated using three dimensions, namely; hygienic aspects, physical activity, and skin reactions. Results demonstrate that the wireless ECG BAN showed better performance, especially regarding the hygienic aspects. It was also favourable for use during physical activities, and the signal quality of the wireless sensor system demonstrated good performance regarding signal noise and artefact disturbances. This paper concludes that wireless cardiac monitoring systems have significant benefits from a patient’s perspective, and further clinical trials should be conducted to further evaluate the new ECG based BAN system, to identify the possibility of widespread adoption and utilisation of wireless technology for arrhythmia diagnostics.     

网络化多参数体征监测仪的设计

目的：设计一种基于无线传感网络的多参数体征监测仪,取代传统有线式数据传输,提高便携式心电监测仪的适应能力。方法系统采用Zigbee无线传感技术,对人体心电、血氧饱和度、无创血压等生命体征参数进行动态监测,并通过小波变换对心电监测算法进行改进,提高心电监测的分辨率和精准度。结果实现了各种医疗监测模块的即插即用功能,以及特征监测数据的网络化传输。结论网络化心电检测仪结构简单、精度高、系统功耗低。     

A Comprehensive Survey of Wireless Body Area Networks

Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted.     

DigiSwitch: A Device to Allow Older Adults to Monitor and Direct the Collection and Transmission of Health Information Collected at Home

Home monitoring represents an appealing alternative for older adults considering out-of-home long term care and an avenue for informal caregivers and health care providers to gain decision-critical information about an older adults’ health and well-being. However, privacy concerns about having 24/7 monitoring, especially video monitoring, in the home environment have been cited as a major barrier in the design of home monitoring systems. In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of “DigiSwitch”, a medical system designed to allow older adults to view information as it is collected about them and temporarily cease transmission of data for privacy reasons. Results from a series of iterative user studies suggest that control over the transmission of monitoring data from the home is helpful for maintaining user privacy. The studies demonstrate that older adults are able to use the DigiSwitch system to monitor and direct the collection and transmission of health information in their homes, providing these participants with a way to simultaneously maintain privacy and benefit from home monitoring technology.     

Ubiquitous Healthcare Computing with Sensor Grid Enhancement with Data Management System (SEGEDMA)

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can be deployed to monitor the health of patients suffering from critical diseases. Also a wireless network consisting of biomedical sensors can be implanted into the patient’s body and can monitor the patients’ conditions. These sensor devices, apart from having an enormous capability of collecting data from their physical surroundings, are also resource constraint in nature with a limited processing and communication ability. Therefore we have to integrate them with the Grid technology in order to process and store the collected data by the sensor nodes. In this paper, we proposed the SEnsor Grid Enhancement Data Management system, called SEGEDMA ensuring the integration of different network technologies and the continuous data access to system users. The main contribution of this work is to achieve the interoperability of both technologies through a novel network architecture ensuring also the interoperability of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and HL7 standards. According to the results, SEGEDMA can be applied successfully in a decentralized healthcare environment.     

A systematic literature review of Native American and Pacific Islanders’ perspectives on health data privacy in the United States

BackgroundPrivacy-related concerns can prevent equitable participation in health research by US Indigenous communities. However, studies focused on these communities'' views regarding health data privacy, including systematic reviews, are lacking.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review analyzing empirical, US-based studies involving American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (NHPI) perspectives on health data privacy, which we define as the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of an individual’s personal health records and/or biological samples (including data derived from biological specimens, such as personal genetic information), as well as the secure and approved use of those data.ResultsTwenty-one studies involving 3234 AI/AN and NHPI participants were eligible for review. The results of this review suggest that concerns about the privacy of health data are both prevalent and complex in AI/AN and NHPI communities. Many respondents raised concerns about the potential for misuse of their health data, including discrimination or stigma, confidentiality breaches, and undesirable or unknown uses of biological specimens.ConclusionsParticipants cited a variety of individual and community-level concerns about the privacy of their health data, and indicated that these deter their willingness to participate in health research. Future investigations should explore in more depth which health data privacy concerns are most salient to specific AI/AN and NHPI communities, and identify the practices that will make the collection and use of health data more trustworthy and transparent for participants.     

A Double Chaotic Layer Encryption Algorithm for Clinical Signals in Telemedicine

Recently, telemedicine offers medical services remotely via telecommunications systems and physiological monitoring devices. This scheme provides healthcare delivery services between physicians and patients conveniently, since some patients can not attend the hospital due to any reason. However, transmission of information over an insecure channel such as internet or private data storing generates a security problem. Therefore, authentication, confidentiality, and privacy are important challenges in telemedicine, where only authorized users should have access to medical or clinical records. On the other hand, chaotic systems have been implemented efficiently in cryptographic systems to provide confidential and privacy. In this work, we propose a novel symmetric encryption algorithm based on logistic map with double chaotic layer encryption (DCLE) in diffusion process and just one round of confusion-diffusion for the confidentiality and privacy of clinical information such as electrocardiograms (ECG), electroencephalograms (EEG), and blood pressure (BP) for applications in telemedicine. The clinical signals are acquired from PhysioBank data base for encryption proposes and analysis. In contrast with recent schemes in literature, we present a secure cryptographic algorithm based on chaos validated with the most complete security analysis until this time. In addition, the cryptograms are validated with the most complete pseudorandomness tests based on National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-22 suite. All results are at MATLAB simulations and all them show the effectiveness, security, robustness, and the potential use of the proposed scheme in telemedicine.     

大规模无线网络在医疗行业的应用

作为医院有线局域网的有效补充,无线局域网（WLAN）有效地克服了有线网络的弊端,利用PDA或移动信息平台随时随地进行生命体征数据采集、医护数据的查询与录入、医生查房、床边护理、呼叫通信、护理监控、药物配送、病人标识码识别。以及基于WLAN的语音多媒体应用等等,充分发挥了医疗信息系统的效能。突出了数字化医院的技术优势：无线信号室内分布系统（WIDS）有效地解决了大规模Wi—Fi网络同频信号干扰严重、切换频繁等诸多问题,实现了整个医院安全、可管理的无线信号均匀覆盖,使得诸多无线应用在医院得以有效实现,延伸了医护服务,提高了医院的运营效率和服务质量。使医院的整体竞争力得到提升。     

Perspective: Privacy policies for health social networking sites

Health social networking sites (HSNS), virtual communities where users connect with each other around common problems and share relevant health data, have been increasingly adopted by medical professionals and patients. The growing use of HSNS like Sermo and PatientsLikeMe has prompted public concerns about the risks that such online data-sharing platforms pose to the privacy and security of personal health data. This paper articulates a set of privacy risks introduced by social networking in health care and presents a practical example that demonstrates how the risks might be intrinsic to some HSNS. The aim of this study is to identify and sketch the policy implications of using HSNS and how policy makers and stakeholders should elaborate upon them to protect the privacy of online health data.     

A Lightweight Security Scheme for Wireless Body Area Networks: Design, Energy Evaluation and Proposed Microprocessor Design

In order for wireless body area networks to meet widespread adoption, a number of security implications must be explored to promote and maintain fundamental medical ethical principles and social expectations. As a result, integration of security functionality to sensor nodes is required. Integrating security functionality to a wireless sensor node increases the size of the stored software program in program memory, the required time that the sensor's microprocessor needs to process the data and the wireless network traffic which is exchanged among sensors. This security overhead has dominant impact on the energy dissipation which is strongly related to the lifetime of the sensor, a critical aspect in wireless sensor network (WSN) technology. Strict definition of the security functionality, complete hardware model (microprocessor and radio), WBAN topology and the structure of the medium access control (MAC) frame are required for an accurate estimation of the energy that security introduces into the WBAN. In this work, we define a lightweight security scheme for WBAN, we estimate the additional energy consumption that the security scheme introduces to WBAN based on commercial available off-the-shelf hardware components (microprocessor and radio), the network topology and the MAC frame. Furthermore, we propose a new microcontroller design in order to reduce the energy consumption of the system. Experimental results and comparisons with other works are given.     

Ear-worn body sensor network device: an objective tool for functional postoperative home recovery monitoring

Patients'' functional recovery at home following surgery may be evaluated by monitoring their activities of daily living. Existing tools for assessing these activities are labor-intensive to administer and rely heavily on recall. This study describes the use of a wireless ear-worn activity recognition sensor to monitor postoperative activity levels continuously using a Bayesian activity classification framework. The device was used to monitor the postoperative recovery of five patients following abdominal surgery. Activity was classified into four groups ranging from very low (level 0) to high (level 3). Overall, patients were found to be undertaking a higher proportion of level 0 activities on postoperative day 1 which was gradually replaced by higher-level activities over the next 3 days. This study demonstrates how a pervasive healthcare technology can objectively monitor functional recovery in the unsupervised home setting. This may be a useful adjunct to existing postoperative monitoring systems.     

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Health Care: Privacy and Security Concerns Limiting Adoption

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been implemented in a wide variety of industries. Health care is no exception. This article explores implementations and limitations of RFID in several health care domains: authentication, medication safety, patient tracking, and blood transfusion medicine. Each domain has seen increasing utilization of unique applications of RFID technology. Given the importance of protecting patient and data privacy, potential privacy and security concerns in each domain are discussed. Such concerns, some of which are inherent to existing RFID hardware and software technology, may limit ubiquitous adoption. In addition, an apparent lack of security standards within the RFID domain and specifically health care may also hinder the growth and utility of RFID within health care for the foreseeable future. Safeguarding the privacy of patient data may be the most important obstacle to overcome to allow the health care industry to take advantage of the numerous benefits RFID technology affords.