Security Enhanced Emergency Situation Detection System for Ambient Assisted Living

Abstract

Typical wearable devices use a dedicated mobile phone as relay node to transfer the collected sensor data to a server. However, such relay nodes can be faulty or inactive due to various reasons, leading to interruptions of the communication link. To mitigate this challenge, we propose a novel security-enhanced emergency situation detection system, where 3 rd party unknown mobile relays are used instead of dedicated gateways as opposed to many existing solutions for IoT healthcare applications. The proposed underlying key agreement and authentication scheme ensures anonymity and untraceability for both sensors (wearable devices) and relay nodes, and relies on symmetric key-based operations to function under resourceconstrained environments. We have also developed a prototype of the system using commercial off-the-shelf devices to verify the proposed method's validity and evaluate the performance advantage over existing approaches. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication technology is used to connect sensor nodes (wearable devices) and mobile relays. After sending medical data to the cloud server, the relay node is responsible for emergency detection and alert generation.

From Sensors to Safety: Internet of Emergency Services (IoES) for Emergency Response and Disaster Management

“…For example, an IoT sensor on a bridge can detect when the bridge is starting to deteriorate and send an alert to maintenance personnel, enabling them to take action before the bridge becomes unsafe [25]. IoT sensors can also be used to automate certain emergency response processes, such as sending alerts or deploying resources [26]. For example, an IoT sensor on a fire hydrant can detect when it has been opened and automatically send an alert to the fire department, enabling them to respond more quickly to the emergency.…”

“…Bluetooth is another communication protocol that can be used in emergency situations. It enables devices to communicate with each other over short distances, making it useful for emergency responders to communicate with each other in areas where traditional communication methods may not be available [26,78,117]. For example, Bluetooth beacons can be used to locate lost or injured individuals in disaster areas.…”

“…• Security and Privacy Risks: IoES relies on the exchange of sensitive and critical data among various stakeholders, such as emergency responders, healthcare providers, and the public [26]. As a result, there is a significant risk of cyber-attacks [97,149], data breaches [150], and unauthorized access to critical information [151].…”

A Survey on Privacy for B5G/6G: New Privacy Challenges, and Research Directions

“…[165] presents a lightweight, compact encryption system based on bit permutation instruction group operation. The work in [167] presents lightweight symmetrickey-based operations for resource constrained environments to preserve anonymity and untraceability with a use case of a third-party mobile relay-based emergency detection system. [168] proposes a lightweight encryption scheme for smart home applications, supporting public key management through identity-based encryption, without certificate handling.…”