Analysis of Security Protocols for Mobile Healthcare

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Mobile Computing
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Mobile Healthcare (mHealth) leverages Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and mobile devices for remote patient monitoring and healthcare delivery.
• mHealth systems provide ubiquitous access to patient data, enabling timely medical treatment and remote communication between patients and healthcare professionals.
• The increasing adoption of mHealth highlights its role as a significant driver in improving public health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and discuss the security requirements, issues, and threats inherent in mHealth systems.
• To present a comprehensive taxonomy of existing security protocols for mHealth.
• To analyze the strengths and weaknesses of current mHealth security protocols and highlight future research directions.

Main Methods:

• A review of current literature on mHealth security.
• Development of a taxonomy for classifying mHealth security protocols based on features, attacks, and costs.
• Comparative analysis of identified security protocols.

Main Results:

• Security requirements, issues, and threats in mHealth systems were identified.
• A taxonomy categorizing recent mHealth security protocols was established, evaluating them based on supported features, attack vectors, computation, and communication costs.
• The strengths and weaknesses of various mHealth security protocols were detailed.

Conclusions:

• Existing mHealth security protocols have varying degrees of effectiveness against different threats.
• Further research is needed to address identified challenges in developing cost-effective, secure, and robust mHealth systems.
• Addressing security vulnerabilities is crucial for the continued growth and reliability of mHealth.