Abstract

Due to the rapid advancement of quantum computers, there has been a furious race for quantum technologies in academia and industry. Quantum cryptography is an important tool for achieving security services during quantum communication. Designated verifier signature, a variant of quantum cryptography, is very useful in applications like the Internet of Things (IoT) and auctions. An identity-based quantum-designated verifier signature (QDVS) scheme is suggested in this work. Our protocol features security attributes like eavesdropping, non-repudiation, designated verification, and hiding sources attacks. Additionally, it is protected from attacks on forgery, inter-resending, and impersonation. The proposed scheme benefits from the traditional designated verifier signature schemes. In the proposed scheme, the signer encrypts a message with his or her private key, and the designated verifier validates the accompanying QDVS using the signer’s public key, which is the signer’s name or email address, which makes the quantum signature system’s key management simpler. It uses an entangled state while signing and verifying the signature; however, the verifier is not required to compare quantum states. A detailed comparison analysis with other similar schemes provides more security for the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the proposed scheme’s effectiveness and feasibility are validated using quantum simulations.

Abstract

A significant evolution in healthcare recently uses technological advancements to perform different activities, such as patient electronic medical records (EMRs) data gathering, preserving, processing, diagnosis, and handling. The adaptation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud has further facilitated the enhancement of related healthcare systems, which can considerably improve data connectivity, accessibility, and exchange, which leads to a significant improvement in the quality of services to patients. Furthermore, scientific computations over data in transmission can be exposed to adversaries and may reveal private data for financial benefit. This article uses the Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song fully homomorphic encryption scheme and IOTA Tangle using masked authenticated messaging (MAM) protocol to provide secure communication between patient and doctor. CKKS-FHE-based data encryption provides data privacy, and secured EMRs sharing through IOTA Tangle guarantees data confidentiality. The performance of this work is analyzed in terms of encryption and decryption time, and payload sharing using MAM and NON-MAM protocols results in evidence of the effectiveness of the approach and improves overall security. The proposed scheme performs better overall computation time and performance than other relevant schemes. Further, the security analysis shows that the proposed system is resilient to data immutability and integrity, forward secrecy, and passive and active attacks.

Abstract

The burgeoning concept of the metaverse as an interconnected virtual space represents the forefront of the next-generation internet. Quantum teleportation, known for its prowess in ensuring secure and reliable communications, stands poised to revolutionize interactions within this immersive digital realm. In this context, we propose a comprehensive interaction protocol tailored for the metaverse environment. The designed protocol entails two fundamental components: first, the interaction between a user and their avatar, facilitated by a secure seven-qubit entangled state; and second, the interaction between two avatars, enabled through an efficient two-qubit entangled state. To fortify the protocol’s resilience, quantum key distribution (QKD) is employed for secure key sharing, while a trusted certificate authority serves as an essential entity for signature verification. Through rigorous safety and efficiency analysis, we demonstrate the protocol’s robustness and performance, ensuring adherence to fundamental security properties such as unforgeability, undeniability, verifiability and traceability. By seamlessly integrating quantum teleportation principles with the metaverse environment, our protocol not only enhances security but also unlocks novel avenues for interaction and exploration within this digital frontier.

Abstract

Existing wireless infrastructure and networks are unable to meet the diverse Quality of Service (QoS) demands inherent in a wide range of consumer healthcare applications (CHAs). In this context, the adoption of fifth generation of wireless cellular technology (5G)/Beyond fifth-generation (B5G)-based network slicing technology has become pivotal for CHAs. It facilitates the creation of multiple virtual networks on a shared physical infrastructure by catering to distinct QoS requirements, where digital twins (DTs) are providing a virtual representation and management framework for healthcare smart devices, services, and applications within network slices. This allows different services and applications to coexist. However, network slicing has to address various security concerns, including securing slice access, enabling secure inter-slice communication, ensuring slice isolation within the shared physical network with DTs, and authenticating end users. To address these challenges, we propose a security mechanism that is specifically designed to safeguard network slice access and isolation in CHAs empowered by DTs, where only legitimate devices with corresponding digital twins and matching attributes are granted access. The proposed model incorporates the use of digital certificates for authenticating both slice access and devices by providing enhanced slice isolation to mitigate unauthorized access. Through a detailed comparative assessment, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme offers superior security and improved functionality attributes, while maintaining low communication costs as compared to those for other similar existing schemes. Furthermore, we validate the feasibility of our scheme through testbed

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)-assisted mobile edge computing(MEC) ensures continuous MEC services by promptly restoring overloaded or disabled MEC infrastructure. Equipped with sufficient computing resources, UAVs deploy to areas needing MEC, such as task offloading and entertainment services. However, in areas with paralyzed edge nodes, vehicle users are unable to verify the legitimacy of UAVs as they cannot access to the trusted authority(TA). Furthermore, the integrity of UAV-assisted MEC environments can be compromised by malicious attackers, as all network participants rely on wireless communication for their interactions. Many authentication schemes have been proposed for UAV environments. However, these schemes encounter a problem of having to communicate through TA for authentication with vehicle users, which makes them difficult to apply to UAV-assisted MEC environments. Therefore, we propose a new broadcast authentication protocol, which can recover MEC services using MEC-equipped UAVs. The proposed protocol can provide UAVs and vehicle users with high reliability via a self-certified public-key cryptosystem, which can verify the legitimacy of the communication partner without the TA. Moreover, we guarantee the user privacy and preserve sensitive information using biohash technology. We verify the security robustness of the proposed protocol using various simulation tool, informal, and formal analyses. We also estimate the practical deployment of the proposed protocol using “Network Simulator-3”. Moreover, we estimate the computation and communication overheads and compare with other existing protocols. The results show that the proposed protocol is feasible and provides users with convenient and seamless intelligent transportation services in UAV-assisted MEC environments.

Abstract

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a compelling networking paradigm integrating wireless communications sensors, connected devices, and embedded computing technologies. The IoMT involves the collection of real-time health data using sophisticated medical sensors. In recent years, the IoMT has become increasingly significant within the broader context of the Internet of Things (IoT). It provides accessibility for health monitoring and poses security obstacles to safeguarding the confidentiality and privacy of patient data. Therefore, this article presents a blockchain-integrated quantum authentication scheme in sensor-assisted IoMT networks. The proposed concept utilizes blockchain technology to achieve efficient patient authentication without the need for third-party entities. In addition, a secure quantum authentication scheme is designed not to require patients to authenticate themselves when communicating with multiple doctors simultaneously. This protocol explicitly addresses how clinicians can misuse their professional roles toward patients in IoMT networks. An evaluation analysis assesses the proposed technique’s efficacy compared to existing authentication schemes. The performance analyses demonstrate that the proposed protocol is resilient against various security attacks. Also, the practical usability of the quantum authentication scheme proved its importance as a significant improvement in communication security for IoMT networks.

Abstract

The increase in popularity of vehicles encourages the development of smart cities. With this advancement, vehicular ad-hoc networks, or VANETs, are now frequently utilized for inter-vehicular communication to gather data regarding traffic congestion, vehicle location, speed, and road conditions. Such a public network is open to various security risks. Overall, protecting personal information on VANET is a vital responsibility. The integration of fog computing and VANETs has gained significant importance in recent years, driven by advancements in cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, and intelligent transportation systems. However, ensuring secure communication in fog-based VANETs remains a major challenge. To overcome this challenge, we introduce a novel authenticated key agreement protocol that achieves mutual authentication, generates a secure session key for secret communication, and provides privacy protection without the use of bilinear pairing. We rigorously prove the security of our proposed protocol, which is designed specifically for fog-based VANETs, and has been shown to meet their stringent security requirements. Moreover, we performed formal and informal analysis that shows our proposed protocol is highly efficient,our protocol’s computational and communication overhead are lower than those of other relevant protocols by 45.570% and 29.432%, respectively. Finally we use NS-3 simulation to prove that our proposed algorithm is a practical and scalable solution for secure communication in fog-based VANETs.

Abstract

The relentless advancements in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have paved the way for various practical applications across networking, public safety, smart transportation, and industrial sectors. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) integrates these technologies into complex, interconnected environments where vast amounts of data are transmitted between devices and systems. However, the inherent openness of communication channels in IIoT systems introduces distinctive security and privacy vulnerabilities, where malevolent entities can effortlessly intercept, forge, or delete communication messages. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated by the critical nature of industrial applications, where breaches can lead to significant operational disruptions or safety hazards To address these challenges, several authentication protocols have been proposed. Nevertheless, many of these protocols remain susceptible to various security attacks. To ensure privacy and security in IIoT environments, we introduce a robust and efficient authentication protocol for a WSN-based IIoT environment. This protocol preserves the privacy of information transmitted among all entities and provides an effective solution for securing this sensitive information. Additionally, we present a detailed security analysis of the proposed protocol to formally and informally demonstrate its security strength. The performance analysis is carried out to compare the proposed protocol against existing related protocols, with results unequivocally demonstrating that our protocol offers enhanced privacy and security with reduced costs.

Abstract

— Multi-domain vehicle to grid (V2G) is a network environment in which numerous service providers offer charging and discharging services to EV users. This can enhance energy management and traffic flow for efficient intelligent transportation systems (ITS). However, the combination of multiple domains can suffer from various security vulnerabilities, highlighting the need for robust countermeasures. Moreover, existing multidomain V2G protocols utilized a central trusted authority (TA) which can create a single point of failure (SPOF), or required high computational resources. In this paper, we propose a multi-domain authentication protocol for secure and efficient V2G services using consortium blockchain. The proposed protocol provides lightweight intra-domain authentication using hash functions and XOR operators. Furthermore, the proposed protocol ensures secure cross-domain authentication by integrating elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and physical unclonable function (PUF). Therefore, the proposed protocol can establish trust, enable efficient communications, and prevent congestion at charging stations. To validate security robustness, comprehensive evaluations are conducted using “Real-Or-Random (ROR) model”, “Scyther tool”, and informal analyses. Comparative computational overheads of the proposed and related protocols are measured using “Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic Cryptographic Library (MIRACL)” testbed experiments. Additionally, a simulation of the practical deployment is conducted using “Network Simulator-3 (NS-3)”. Results indicate that the proposed protocol can improve ITS by providing secure and efficient services for multi-domain V2G environments

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) integrated with the internet of things (IoT) guarantee useful advantages such as facilitating ground communications in regions where the availability of connectivity is restricted owing to physical obstacles. However, the data transmitted by sensors and IoT embedded in UAVs are facing new security issues and privacy challenges with the known security attacks over time. To address these security attacks and threats and meet lightweight UAV communication requirements, a secure and lightweight authentication and key agreement (AKA) scheme is essential. Recently, researchers have designed a lightweight blockchain-enabled AKA scheme with privacy-preserving for UAVs to provide useful and reliable services. However, we prove that the existing scheme is fragile to various security attacks and does not ensure mutual authentication. Thus, we propose a robust and lightweight blockchain-based AKA scheme for PUF-enabled UAVs, called RLBA-UAV to enhance the security problems of the existing scheme. We demonstrate the security of RLBA-UAV by using informal/formal security analyses such as the ROR oracle model and AVISPA simulation. Moreover, we demonstrate the performance comparison analysis between RLBA-UAV and related schemes for UAVs. We demonstrate an implementation of a network simulator (NS) 3 compliant with IEEE 802.11p standards to show its validation and feasibility that RLBA-UAV is appropriate for practical UAVs. Thus, RLBA-UAV offers enhanced security and operational efficiency compared to related schemes and can be applied to practical blockchain-based AKA systems for UAVs.