Security analysis and secure channel-free certificateless searchable public key authenticated encryption for a cloud-based Internet of things.

With the rapid development of informatization, an increasing number of industries and organizations outsource their data to cloud servers, to avoid the cost of local data management and to share data. For example, industrial Internet of things systems and mobile healthcare systems rely on cloud computing's powerful data storage and processing capabilities to address the storage, provision, and maintenance of massive amounts of industrial and medical data. One of the major challenges facing cloud-based storage environments is how to ensure the confidentiality and security of outsourced sensitive data. To mitigate these issues, He et al. and Ma et al. have recently independently proposed two certificateless public key searchable encryption schemes. In this paper, we analyze the security of these two schemes and show that the reduction proof of He et al.'s CLPAEKS scheme is incorrect, and that Ma et al.'s CLPEKS scheme is not secure against keyword guessing attacks. We then propose a channel-free certificateless searchable public key authenticated encryption (dCLPAEKS) scheme and prove that it is secure against inside keyword guessing attacks under the enhanced security model. Compared with other certificateless public key searchable encryption schemes, this scheme has higher security and comparable efficiency.

Communication cost of consensus for nodes with limited memory.

Motivated by applications in wireless networks and the Internet of Things, we consider a model of n nodes trying to reach consensus with high probability on their majority bit. Each node i is assigned a bit at time 0 and is a finite automaton with m bits of memory (i.e., [Formula: see text] states) and a Poisson clock. When the clock of i rings, i can choose to communicate and is then matched to a uniformly chosen node j. The nodes j and i may update their states based on the state of the other node. Previous work has focused on minimizing the time to consensus and the probability of error, while our goal is minimizing the number of communications. We show that, when [Formula: see text], consensus can be reached with linear communication cost, but this is impossible if [Formula: see text] A key step is to distinguish when nodes can become aware of knowing the majority bit and stop communicating. We show that this is impossible if their memory is too low.

System Accuracy Assessment of a Blood Glucose Meter With Wireless Internet Access Associated With Unusual Hypoglycemia Patterns in Clinical Trials.

BACKGROUND: In recent randomized clinical trials, an unusual reporting pattern of glycemic data and hypoglycemic events potentially related to an internet enabled blood glucose meter (MyGlucoHealth, BGM) was observed. Therefore, this clinical study was conducted to evaluate the system accuracy of the BGM in accordance with the ISO15197:2015 guidelines with additional data collection. METHODS: To investigate system accuracy, 10 of 3088 devices and 6 of 23 strip lots, used in the trials, were selected by a randomization procedure and a standard repeatability assessment. YSI 2300 STAT Plus was used as the standard reference method. The samples were distributed as per the ISO15197:2015 recommendations with 20 additional samples in the hypoglycemic range. Each sample was tested with 6 devices and 6 strip lots with double determinations. RESULTS: Overall, 121 subjects with blood glucose values 26-423 mg/dL were analyzed, resulting in 1452 data points. In all, 186/1452 readings (12.8%) did not meet the ISO acceptance criteria. Data evaluated according to the FDA guidelines showed that 336/1452 (23.1%) readings did not meet the acceptance criteria. A clear bias toward elevated values was observed for BG <100 mg/dL (MARD: 11.0%). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the BGM, although approved according to standard regulatory guidelines, did not meet the level of analytical accuracy required for clinical treatment decisions according to ISO 15197:2015 and FDA requirements. In general, caution should be exercised before selection of BGMs for patients and in clinical trials.

Adaptive Risk Prediction and Anonymous Secured Communication in MANET for Medical Informatics.

Location-based services (LBS) and information security is a major concern in communication system.With the increasing popularity of location based services more attention is paid to preserve location information to protect the data. In order to protect and preserve the MANET and location based services, there are various existing location based anonymity protocols such as k-anonymity location based, but these protocols are more overhead due to the dynamic mobility nature of ad-hoc networks. In this paper we proposed an Adaptive Risk Prediction and Anonymous Secured Communication protocol to predict the risk before processing anonymous communication. The proposed protocol estimates the risk against adjacent nodes and estimates the vulnerability paths using hidden markov model and decision tree. The decision tree determines the evidence to identify the trusted paths. The anonymous communication message authentication scheme assigns the anonymous communication and organize the secured authentication scheme. We simulated the network by considering different attacks to determine the efficiency of Adaptive Risk Prediction and Anonymous Secured Communication using NS2 simulator.

Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.15.6 CSMA/CA Protocol for WBAN Medical Scenario through DTMC Model.

The newly drafted IEEE 802.15.6 standard for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) has been concentrating on a numerous medical and non-medical applications. Such short range wireless communication standard offers ultra-low power consumption with variable data rates from few Kbps to Mbps in, on or around the proximity of the human body. In this paper, the performance analysis of carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme based on IEEE 802.15.6 standard in terms of throughput, reliability, clear channel assessment (CCA) failure probability, packet drop probability, and end-to-end delay has been presented. We have developed a discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC) to significantly evaluate the performances of IEEE 802.15.6 CSMA/CA under non-ideal channel condition having saturated traffic condition including node wait time and service time. We also visualize that, as soon as the payload length increases the CCA failure probability increases, which results in lower node's reliability. Also, we have calculated the end-to-end delay in order to prioritize the node wait time cause by backoff and retransmission. The user priority (UP) wise DTMC analysis has been performed to show the importance of the standard especially for medical scenario.

Active implantable medical device EMI assessment for wireless power transfer operating in LF and HF bands.

The electromagnetic interference (EMI) imposed on active implantable medical devices by wireless power transfer systems (WPTSs) is discussed based upon results of in vitro experiments. The purpose of this study is to present comprehensive EMI test results gathered from implantable-cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators exposed to the electromagnetic field generated by several WPTSs operating in low-frequency (70 kHz-460 kHz) and high-frequency (6.78 MHz) bands. The constructed in vitro experimental test system based upon an Irnich's flat torso phantom was applied. EMI test experiments are conducted on 14 types of WPTSs including Qi-compliant system and EV-charging WPT system mounted on current production EVs. In addition, a numerical simulation model for active implantable medical device (AIMD) EMI estimation based on the experimental test system is newly proposed. The experimental results demonstrate the risk of WPTSs emitting intermittent signal to affect the correct behavior of AIMDs when operating at very short distances. The proposed numerical simulation model is applicable to obtain basically the EMI characteristics of various types of WPTSs.

SAR compliance assessment of PMR 446 and FRS walkie-talkies.

The vast amount of studies on radiofrequency dosimetry deal with exposure due to mobile devices and base station antennas for cellular communication systems. This study investigates compliance of walkie-talkies to exposure guidelines established by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and the Federal Communications Committee. The generic walkie-talkie consisted of a helical antenna and a ground plane and was derived by reverse engineering of a commercial walkie-talkie. Measured and simulated values of antenna characteristics and electromagnetic near fields of the generic walkie-talkie were within 2% and 8%, respectively. We also validated normalized electromagnetic near fields of the generic walkie-talkie against a commercial device and observed a very good agreement (deviation <6%). We showed that peak localized specific absorption rate (SAR) induced in the oval flat phantom by the generic walkie-talkie is in agreement with four commercial devices if input power of the generic walkie-talkie is rescaled based on magnetic near field. Finally, we found that SAR of commercial devices is within current SAR limits for general public exposure for a worst-case duty cycle of 100%, that is, about 3 times and 6 times lower than the limit on the 1 g SAR (1.6 W/kg) and 10 g SAR (2 W/kg), respectively. But, an effective radiated power as specified by the Private Mobile Radio at 446 MHz (PMR 446) radio standard can cause localized SAR exceeding SAR limits for 1 g of tissue.

An empirical study to determine factors that motivate and limit the implementation of ICT in healthcare environments.

BACKGROUND: The maturity and usage of wireless technology has influenced health services, and this has raised expectations from users that healthcare services will become more affordable due to technology growth. There is increasing evidence to justify this expectation, as telehealth is becoming more and more prevalent in many countries. Thus, health services are now offered beyond the boundaries of traditional hospitals, giving rise to many external factors dictating their quality. This has led us to investigate the factors that motivate and limit the implementation of ICT applications in the healthcare domain. METHODS: We used a mixed method approach with the qualitative aspects leading the quantitative aspects. The main reason for this approach was to understand and explore the domain through the qualitative aspects as we could be part of the discussion. Then we conducted a quantitative survey to extract more responses in order to justify the claims explored in the qualitative process. RESULTS: We found that there are a number of internal and external factors influencing ICT adoption in the healthcare environment so that services can be provided via ICT tools. These factors were grouped under factors contributing to improved outcomes, efficiency and the management of technology. We conceptualised that these three groups of factors drive ICT implementation to assure health services. CONCLUSIONS: The main lesson learned from this research was that Information Systems discipline needs to urgently consider health informatics as a serious growth area. We also found that as IS researchers, we need to 'mix' with the health environment in order to understand the environment and then develop suitable methods to answer posited research questions.

Reliable multihop broadcast protocol with a low-overhead link quality assessment for ITS based on VANETs in highway scenarios.

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been identified as a key technology to enable intelligent transport systems (ITS), which are aimed to radically improve the safety, comfort, and greenness of the vehicles in the road. However, in order to fully exploit VANETs potential, several issues must be addressed. Because of the high dynamic of VANETs and the impairments in the wireless channel, one key issue arising when working with VANETs is the multihop dissemination of broadcast packets for safety and infotainment applications. In this paper a reliable low-overhead multihop broadcast (RLMB) protocol is proposed to address the well-known broadcast storm problem. The proposed RLMB takes advantage of the hello messages exchanged between the vehicles and it processes such information to intelligently select a relay set and reduce the redundant broadcast. Additionally, to reduce the hello messages rate dependency, RLMB uses a point-to-zone link evaluation approach. RLMB performance is compared with one of the leading multihop broadcast protocols existing to date. Performance metrics show that our RLMB solution outperforms the leading protocol in terms of important metrics such as packet dissemination ratio, overhead, and delay.

Surveying wearable human assistive technology for life and safety critical applications: standards, challenges and opportunities.

In this survey a new application paradigm life and safety for critical operations and missions using wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology is introduced. This paradigm has a vast scope of applications, including disaster management, worker safety in harsh environments such as roadside and building workers, mobile health monitoring, ambient assisted living and many more. It is often the case that during the critical operations and the target conditions, the existing infrastructure is either absent, damaged or overcrowded. In this context, it is envisioned that WBANs will enable the quick deployment of ad-hoc/on-the-fly communication networks to help save many lives and ensuring people's safety. However, to understand the applications more deeply and their specific characteristics and requirements, this survey presents a comprehensive study on the applications scenarios, their context and specific requirements. It explores details of the key enabling standards, existing state-of-the-art research studies, and projects to understand their limitations before realizing aforementioned applications. Application-specific challenges and issues are discussed comprehensively from various perspectives and future research and development directions are highlighted as an inspiration for new innovative solutions. To conclude, this survey opens up a good opportunity for companies and research centers to investigate old but still new problems, in the realm of wearable technologies, which are increasingly evolving and getting more and more attention recently.