Securing Smart Healthcare Cyber-Physical Systems against Blackhole and Greyhole Attacks Using a Blockchain-Enabled Gini Index Framework

Abstract

The increasing reliance on cyber-physical systems (CPSs) in critical domains such as healthcare, smart grids, and intelligent transportation systems necessitates robust security measures to protect against cyber threats. Among these threats, blackhole and greyhole attacks pose significant risks to the availability and integrity of CPSs. The current detection and mitigation approaches often struggle to accurately differentiate between legitimate and malicious behavior, leading to ineffective protection. This paper introduces Gini-index and blockchain-based Blackhole/Greyhole RPL (GBG-RPL), a novel technique designed for efficient detection and mitigation of blackhole and greyhole attacks in smart health monitoring CPSs. GBG-RPL leverages the analytical prowess of the Gini index and the security advantages of blockchain technology to protect these systems against sophisticated threats. This research not only focuses on identifying anomalous activities but also proposes a resilient framework that ensures the integrity and reliability of the monitored data. GBG-RPL achieves notable improvements as compared to another state-of-the-art technique referred to as BCPS-RPL, including a 7.18% reduction in packet loss ratio, an 11.97% enhancement in residual energy utilization, and a 19.27% decrease in energy consumption. Its security features are also very effective, boasting a 10.65% improvement in attack-detection rate and an 18.88% faster average attack-detection time. GBG-RPL optimizes network management by exhibiting a 21.65% reduction in message overhead and a 28.34% decrease in end-to-end delay, thus showing its potential for enhanced reliability, efficiency, and security.

Trust-Based Optimized Reporting for Detection and Prevention of Black Hole Attacks in Low-Power and Lossy Green IoT Networks

“…Specification-based methods, as demonstrated by the security mechanism in Secure RPL, offer comprehensive approaches to identify and respond to black hole threats. In [ 14 ], the authors introduce GBG-RPL, a technique leveraging Gini-index and blockchain to detect and mitigate black hole attacks in smart health monitoring CPSs. GBG-RPL not only identifies anomalous activities but also proposes a resilient framework, achieving notable improvements in terms of reduced packet loss, enhanced residual energy utilization, decreased energy consumption, improved attack-detection rate, faster attack-detection time, optimized network management, and reduced end-to-end delay.…”

Cybersecurity for Sustainable Smart Healthcare: State of the Art, Taxonomy, Mechanisms, and Essential Roles

“…In smart healthcare, network segmentation is a security practice and defense-in-depth strategy that involves splitting a healthcare organization's network into multiple smaller subnetworks or zones to protect sensitive medical data, reduce congestion, limit system failures, and limit access to the rest of the network [171]. Each segment in an intelligent healthcare setting serves as an extra security layer with access points, login credentials, and firewall protection separated from the others, forming barriers that prevent unauthorized access to SHSs, separating IoMT devices from the rest of the IT, medical devices and services that help in monitoring patients in real-time and remotely and restricting the spread of cyber threats [22]. By implementing a network segmentation policy, smart healthcare providers can control the spread of a cyber-attack and limit the damage caused, provide better access control to network security, improve the flow of traffic between networks, easier network traffic monitoring and threat detection, improve the performance and reliability of the smart healthcare network, better protect sensitive medical data and endpoint devices, reduce the impact of a successful cyberattack, enhance compliance with regulations and standards, such as HIPAA, and secure cloud-based servers [140].…”

“…Security audits and testing for smart healthcare networks and systems include vulnerability assessments, compliance checks, penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, access logs and code review, security configuration review, security incident response testing, security awareness training, continuous network traffic monitoring, and third-party assessments [141]. They are essential because they help to ensure sensitive medical data integrity and confidentiality, guarantee the proper functioning of the SHS, track system and healthcare user activities, identify and address potential system vulnerabilities and security incidents, and ensure adherence to industry standards and regulations [22][142] [174][175].…”

“…As we navigate toward sustainable healthcare ecosystems characterized by interconnected devices and data-driven decision-making, robust cybersecurity measures become increasingly paramount. The convergence of healthcare and digital technology offers unparalleled benefits, such as efficient and real-time patient monitoring, remote patient diagnosis, reduced treatment costs, efficient healthcare services with more accurate results, accessibility to medical services, streamlined healthcare operations, a secure medical platform, improved productivity, increased patient satisfaction, enhanced patient-doctor communication, predictive analytics, and improved decisionmaking [20][21][22][23].…”