A Lightweight authentication scheme for IoT against Rogue Base Station Attacks

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cybersecurity
• Network Security

Background:

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices are crucial for cloud applications, especially in healthcare.
• Device handover between access points creates vulnerabilities for attackers.
• Rogue base stations pose risks to data integrity and user privacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a lightweight authentication scheme for private blockchain networks.
• To secure IoT devices from rogue base stations during the handover process.
• To enhance data integrity and privacy in IoT environments.

Main Methods:

• Developed a lightweight authentication scheme utilizing private blockchain.
• Designed an authentication certificate using SHA256 and modulo operations.
• Implemented key hashing and size reduction for efficient mutual authentication between devices and base stations.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme requires only three messages for authentication.
• Achieved a minimum of 99.30% reduction in communication overhead.
• Demonstrated an 89.58% reduction in storage overhead compared to existing methods.

Conclusions:

• The proposed lightweight authentication scheme effectively secures IoT devices during handover.
• Blockchain integration provides a robust solution against rogue base stations.
• Significant improvements in communication and storage efficiency are achieved.