An Efficient Ciphertext-Policy Weighted Attribute-Based Encryption for the Internet of Health Things

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cybersecurity
• Health Informatics

Background:

• The Internet of Health Things (IoHT) connects medical devices for smart health monitoring.
• Cybersecurity is a critical challenge in IoHT due to sensitive data.
• Existing ciphertext-policy weighted attribute-based encryption (CP-WABE) methods lack flexibility and efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a flexible and efficient CP-WABE scheme for IoHT data security.
• To address limitations in computational capability and storage efficiency of current CP-WABE schemes.
• To enhance access control for weighted attributes and complex comparisons in IoHT.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a novel access policy expression method utilizing 0-1 coding technology.
• Constructed a flexible and efficient CP-WABE scheme tailored for IoHT environments.
• Incorporated offline/online encryption and outsourced decryption for resource-constrained IoT terminals.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme supports weighted attributes and arbitrary comparisons of weighted attributes.
• Demonstrated improved efficiency and feasibility compared to existing schemes through theoretical and experimental analyses.
• Achieved security against chosen-plaintext attacks.

Conclusions:

• The novel CP-WABE scheme offers a flexible, efficient, and secure solution for IoHT data protection.
• The use of 0-1 coding and outsourced decryption enhances performance on IoT devices.
• This approach effectively addresses key cybersecurity challenges in the IoHT ecosystem.