A cloud server centric multifactor lightweight authentication scheme for eHealth systems.

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cybersecurity
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Cloud-IoT-based e-healthcare systems require robust data security for patient confidentiality and integrity.
• Existing security frameworks often exhibit weaknesses against sophisticated attacks like man-in-the-middle and impersonation.
• Prior authentication protocols, such as Alzahrani et al.'s, have shown vulnerabilities to impersonation attacks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel cloud-server-centric multi-factor authentication protocol for e-healthcare environments.
• To enhance the security robustness of authentication processes in cloud-IoT e-healthcare systems.
• To mitigate identified vulnerabilities in existing security frameworks.

Main Methods:

• Developed a multi-factor authentication protocol integrating one-way hash functions, biometrics, and random number generation.
• Conducted formal security analysis using BAN Logic and the Real-Or-Random Security Model.
• Performed formal verification with the AVISPA Tool and practical implementation analysis.
• Evaluated performance based on computational time, communication overhead, and scalability.

Main Results:

• The proposed protocol effectively withstands various cyberattacks targeting e-healthcare systems.
• Formal and practical analyses confirmed the protocol's correctness and robustness against impersonation and other threats.
• Performance analysis indicated improved efficiencies compared to current state-of-the-art protocols.

Conclusions:

• The novel multi-factor authentication protocol offers enhanced security for cloud-IoT e-healthcare systems.
• The protocol successfully addresses the vulnerabilities of previous authentication methods.
• It presents a viable and efficient solution for practical implementation in e-healthcare applications.