A Kyber-Based Lightweight Cloud-Assisted Authentication Scheme for Medical IoT.

Area of Science:

• Cybersecurity
• Healthcare Technology
• Applied Cryptography

Background:

• The Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) integrates wearable devices, wireless communication, and cloud services for smart healthcare.
• MIoT systems face significant security risks, including device impersonation and sensitive data theft via public channels.
• Existing authentication schemes are vulnerable to quantum attacks and have high communication overhead.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel multi-factor identity authentication protocol for MIoT devices.
• To enhance security against quantum attacks and protect user privacy.
• To reduce communication overhead in MIoT data transmission.

Main Methods:

• Integration of lattice-based Kyber key encapsulation for post-quantum key agreement.
• Utilization of a fuzzy commitment mechanism to secure biological templates.
• Employment of hash functions and lightweight error correction codes to minimize communication overhead.
• Rigorous security proof in the Real-or-Random model.

Main Results:

• The proposed protocol achieves post-quantum security and robust privacy protection.
• It effectively secures biological templates and enables secure key agreement.
• The scheme significantly reduces terminal communication overhead compared to existing solutions.
• Security analysis confirms compliance with wireless network security requirements.

Conclusions:

• The developed multi-factor authentication protocol addresses the security and overhead limitations of current MIoT schemes.
• It offers a balanced approach, providing strong security including post-quantum resistance while minimizing communication costs.
• This contributes to more secure and efficient smart healthcare systems.