Ruhma Tahir

Improving Resilience Against Node Capture Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks Using ICmetrics

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have the potential of being employed in a variety of applications ranging from battlefield surveillance to everyday applications such as smart homes and patient monitoring. Security is a major challenge that all applications based on WSNs are facing nowadays. Firstly, due to the wireless nature of WSNs, and secondly due to their ability to operate in unattended environments makes them even more vulnerable to various sorts of attacks. Among these attacks is node capture attack in WSNs, whose threat severity can range from a single node being compromised in the network to the whole network being compromised as a result of that single node compromise. In this paper, we propose the use of ICMetric technology to provide resilience against node compromise in WSN. ICmetrics generates the security attributes of the sensor node based on measurable hardware and software characteristics of the integrated circuit. These properties of ICmetrics can help safeguard WSNs from various node capture attacks.

Securing Health Sensing Using Integrated Circuit Metric

Convergence of technologies from several domains of computing and healthcare have aided in the creation of devices that can help health professionals in monitoring their patients remotely. An increase in networked healthcare devices has resulted in incidents related to data theft, medical identity theft and insurance fraud. In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a secure lightweight wearable health sensing system. The proposed system is based on an emerging security technology called Integrated Circuit Metric (ICMetric) that extracts the inherent features of a device to generate a unique device identification. In this paper, we provide details of how the physical characteristics of a health sensor can be used for the generation of hardware “fingerprints”. The obtained fingerprints are used to deliver security services like authentication, confidentiality, secure admission and symmetric key generation. The generated symmetric key is used to securely communicate the health records and data of the patient. Based on experimental results and the security analysis of the proposed scheme, it is apparent that the proposed system enables high levels of security for health monitoring in resource optimized manner.

Resilience against brute force and rainbow table attacks using strong ICMetrics session key pairs

Cryptography has become an essential for providing security in embedded system applications. The employed cryptographic primitives should provide strong protection such that the security of the system is not compromised at any point in the lifecycle of a secure operation. This particularly includes the secure generation and maintenance of cryptographic keys. In general this assumption is difficult to accomplish, since there are attacks that come under this umbrella ranging from brute force attacks on the key to capturing the node to extract the key. In this paper we investigate and analyze ICMetrics and its counterpart scheme referred to as the scheme for the generation of strong high entropy ICMetrics session key pairs. ICMetrics is a key technology that computes the secret key based on hardware/ software properties of a device, thereby providing resilience against node capture attacks, while high entropy key pair generation scheme is employed to strengthen the generated ICMetrics basis number, so as to safeguard the generated strong key pairs from brute force and rainbow table attacks.

An ICMetrics Based Lightweight Security Architecture Using Lattice Signcryption

The advent of embedded systems has completely transformed the information landscape. With the explosive growth in the use of interactive real-time technologies, this internet landscape aims to support an even broader range of application domains. The large amount of data that is exchanged by these applications has made them an attractive target for attacks. Thus it is important to employ security mechanisms to protect these systems from attackers. A major challenge facing researchers is the resource constrained nature of these systems, which renders most of the traditional security mechanisms almost useless. In this paper we propose a lightweight ICmetrics based security architecture using lattices. The features of the proposed architecture fulfill both the requirements of security as well as energy efficiency. The proposed architecture provides authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation and integrity of data. Using the identity information derived from ICmetrics of the device, we further construct a sign cryption scheme based on lattices that makes use of certificate less PKC to achieve the security requirements of the design. This scheme is targeted on resource constrained environments, and can be used widely in applications that require sufficient levels of security with limited resources.

A Novel Private Cloud Document Archival System Architecture Based on ICmetrics

This paper proposes a novel architecture that offers features for a truly interactive yet private document archival cloud. The proposed secure document archival system has been specifically designed for the elimination of paper based systems in organization. The architecture attempts to shift paper based systems to an electronic archival system where the documents are secure and the system is supportive to user demands and features. Therefore besides document archival the proposed architecture also offers the authentication and encryption for secure keeping of data on the cloud. We propose a novel combination of SSL coupled with ICMetrics for the document archival system, which will prove to be a very valuable tool for encrypting and authenticating in the cloud world.

Securing MEMS Based Sensor Nodes in the Internet of Things

Security schemes are rendered impractical if their cryptographic keys are compromised. ICMetric technology is an innovation in the field of cryptography that generates a device identification based on the inherent features of a device. Devices in the internet of things (IoT) are cyber physical systems with varying purpose and platforms. Since these devices are deeply entwined with the physical world, the chances of a security failure are higher. In this paper we suggest coupling the ICMetric technology and IoT. We prove that device identification can be generated by using the accelerometer found in many pervasive devices. Our experiments are based on a set of health sensors equipped with a MEMS accelerometer. Periodic readings are obtained from the sensor and analysed mathematically and statistically to generate a stable ICMetric number.

A novel ICMetric based framework for securing the Internet of Things

Over the years IoT has gained importance and is rapidly evolving. Security and privacy issues have been described as the most challenging problems in the IoT domain. Security at both the device and network level is critical to the operation of IoT. Our proposed novel ICMKeyStream framework aims to safeguard against threats at the device and network level; thereby providing authentication, confidentiality and non-repudiation for continuous data streams as with many IoT applications. The evaluation of our system proves that our scheme is very feasible for the embedded system devices driving the IoT.

On the security of consumer wearable devices in the Internet of Things

Miniaturization of computer hardware and the demand for network capable devices has resulted in the emergence of a new class of technology called wearable computing. Wearable devices have many purposes like lifestyle support, health monitoring, fitness monitoring, entertainment, industrial uses, and gaming. Wearable devices are hurriedly being marketed in an attempt to capture an emerging market. Owing to this, some devices do not adequately address the need for security. To enable virtualization and connectivity wearable devices sense and transmit data, therefore it is essential that the device, its data and the user are protected. In this paper the use of novel Integrated Circuit Metric (ICMetric) technology for the provision of security in wearable devices has been suggested. ICMetric technology uses the features of a device to generate an identification which is then used for the provision of cryptographic services. This paper explores how a device ICMetric can be generated by using the accelerometer and gyroscope sensor. Since wearable devices often operate in a group setting the work also focuses on generating a group identification which is then used to deliver services like authentication, confidentiality, secure admission and symmetric key generation. Experiment and simulation results prove that the scheme offers high levels of security without compromising on resource demands.

A secure cloud framework for ICMetric based IoT health devices

Wearable devices are an important part of internet of things (IoT)with many applications in healthcare. Prevalent security concerns create a compelling case for a renewed approach by incorporating the ICMetric technology in IoT healthcare. The ICMetric technology is a novel security approach and uses the features of a device to form the basis of cryptographic services like key generation, authentication and admission control. Cryptographic systems designed using ICMetric technology use unique measurable device features to form a root of trust. This paper uses the MEMS bias in a body wearable Shimmer sensor to create a device ICMetric. The ICMetric identity is used to generate cryptographic key to perform encryption and decryption of patients data which is being communicated to health professionals. The cloud based component of the proposed framework provides much needed distributed data processing and availability. The proposed schemes have been simulated and tested for conformance to high levels of security and performance.