Studies on key establishment techniques for authentication using chaff points in wireless body area networks

Abstract

In the current scenario the focus of, wireless communication is on, the development in all fields. Especially, Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has gained considerable significance in medical fields like Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD), Retinal chip, Neuro-stimulators etc. Nowadays, these Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) are used for monitoring chronic patient s medical condition, therapeutic and life-saving functions. The IMDs and Body Area Networks information and the device must be secure and also their privacy must be protected. The threats to WBAN are of three types, namely, wireless telemetry interface threats, software threats and hardware and sensor threats. The threats related to telemetry interface, are disscused because the interface point is easy to move into the system software and can affect the expected operation of the system. The absence of any protection at the interface makes it easy for the attackers to take control of the protected IMD and its medical information. Thus, protection of the telemetry interface has become mandatory in IMDs for data exchange and re-programming. WBAN is a new technology, wherein security schemes in protecting these devices are not fully developed and the existing algorithms are not suitable for these resource constrained WBAN devices. These IMDs are considered resource constrained in view of their miniature size, so they can be easily placed inside the patient without any hindrance. Due to this miniature size, it has a small processor, memory and minimum battery size. Thus it is required to have a Light Weight operating system to run the device. A Light Weight security algorithm is needed for securing the WBAN devices and protecting the wireless telemetry interface. The existing WBAN communication link uses an unencrypted data and does not have any device authentication scheme. Where data is highly visible it is easily identified by the attackers for life-threatening and illegal purposes. Hence, it is necessary to prevent adversaries from overhearing IMDs wireless telemetry interface and modifications to the communicated signal to the IMD programmer device. Unsurprisingly, a few less complex authentication techniques have been proposed exclusively to secure the wireless telemetry of IMDs and Body Area Networks. This motivated the proposal of a less computationally complex and energy efficient Light Weight security algorithm. In this, a biometrics solution provides the highest level of security in secret key generation and a key agreement scheme for protecting the IMD wireless telemetry interface. In the biometrics solution, the Physiological Values of the patient are considered for security. Generally the Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is a common choice as a source of key material in these security schemes due to its high randomness and similarity when measured from any body parts and the fact that it can be used without any modifications. newline