MARC: A Novel Framework for Detecting MITM Attacks in eHealthcare BLE Systems.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cybersecurity
• Wireless Communication

Background:

• Real-time patient monitoring relies on wireless sensors with limited resources.
• Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is common but vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks due to inadequate security.
• These vulnerabilities compromise patient data confidentiality, availability, and integrity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel framework, MARC, for detecting, analyzing, and mitigating Bluetooth security flaws.
• To specifically address MITM attacks targeting No-input No-output (NiNo) medical devices.
• To enhance the security of wireless data acquisition in eHealth applications.

Main Methods:

• Development of the MARC framework for Bluetooth security analysis.
• Implementation of four novel anomaly detection metrics: Malicious scan requests, Advertisement intervals, RSSI levels, and Cloned node addresses.
• Practical evaluation through simulated attack scenarios.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated accurate and efficient detection of MITM attacks.
• Validation of the MARC framework's effectiveness in identifying specific attack signatures.
• Promising results in enhancing the security of BLE communication for medical sensors.

Conclusions:

• The MARC framework offers a robust solution for securing BLE communications in patient monitoring systems.
• Addressing security flaws like MITM attacks is crucial for safety-critical eHealth data.
• The proposed anomaly detection metrics provide effective means to identify and mitigate wireless security threats.