Securing Critical User Information over the Internet of Medical Things Platforms Using a Hybrid Cryptography Scheme

Abstract

The application of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) in medical systems has brought much ease in discharging healthcare services by medical practitioners. However, the security and privacy preservation of critical user data remain the reason the technology has not yet been fully maximized. Undoubtedly, a secure IoMT model that preserves individual users’ privacy will enhance the wide acceptability of IoMT technology. However, existing works that have attempted to solve these privacy and insecurity problems are not space-conservative, computationally intensive, and also vulnerable to security attacks. In this paper, an IoMT-based model that conserves the privacy of the data, is less computationally intensive, and is resistant to various cryptanalysis attacks is proposed. Specifically, an efficient privacy-preserving technique where an efficient searching algorithm through encrypted data was used and a hybrid cryptography algorithm that combines the modification of the Caesar cipher with the Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) and Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) were projected to achieve user data security and privacy preservation of the patient. Furthermore, the modified algorithm can secure messages during transmission, perform key exchanges between clients and healthcare centres, and guarantee user authentication by authorized healthcare centres. The proposed IoMT model, leveraging the hybrid cryptography algorithm, was analysed and compared against different security attacks. The analysis results revealed that the model is secure, preserves the privacy of critical user information, and shows robust resistance against different cryptanalysis attacks.