Privacy in Inter-Vehicular Networks: Why simple pseudonym change is not enough

Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) systems disclose rich location information about vehicles. State-of-the-art security architectures are aware of the problem and provide privacy enhancing mechanisms, notably pseudonymous authentication. However, the granularity and the amount of location information IVC protocols divulge, enable an adversary that eavesdrops all traffic throughout an area, to reconstruct long traces of the whereabouts of the majority of vehicles within the same area. Our analysis in this paper confirms the existence of this kind of threat. As a result, it is questionable if strong location privacy is achievable in IVC systems against a powerful adversary.\u

Effective Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms for Vehicle-to-Everything Services

Owing to the advancement of wireless communication technologies, drivers can rely on smart connected vehicles to communicate with each other, roadside units, pedestrians, and remote service providers to enjoy a large amount of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services, including navigation, parking, ride hailing, and car sharing. These V2X services provide different functions for bettering travel experiences, which have a bunch of benefits. In the real world, even without smart connected vehicles, drivers as users can utilize their smartphones and mobile applications to access V2X services and connect their smartphones to vehicles through some interfaces, e.g., IOS Carplay and Android Auto. In this way, they can still enjoy V2X services through modern car infotainment systems installed on vehicles. Most of the V2X services are data-centric and data-intensive, i.e., users have to upload personal data to a remote service provider, and the service provider can continuously collect a user's data and offer personalized services. However, the data acquired from users may include users' sensitive information, which may expose user privacy and cause serious consequences. To protect user privacy, a basic privacy-preserving mechanism, i.e, anonymization, can be applied in V2X services. Nevertheless, a big obstacle arises as well: user anonymization may affect V2X services' availability. As users become anonymous, users may behave selfishly and maliciously to break the functions of a V2X service without being detected and the service may become unavailable. In short, there exist a conflict between privacy and availability, which is caused by different requirements of users and service providers. In this thesis, we have identified three major conflicts between privacy and availability for V2X services: privacy vs. linkability, privacy vs. accountability, privacy vs. reliability, and then have proposed and designed three privacy-preserving mechanisms to resolve these conflicts. Firstly, the thesis investigates the conflict between privacy and linkability in an automated valet parking (AVP) service, where users can reserve a parking slot for their vehicles such that vehicles can achieve automated valet parking. As an optional privacy-preserving measure, users can choose to anonymize their identities when booking a parking slot for their vehicles. In this way, although user privacy is protected by anonymization, malicious users can repeatedly send parking reservation requests to a parking service provider to make the system unavailable (i.e., "Double-Reservation Attack"). Aiming at this conflict, a security model is given in the thesis to clearly define necessary privacy requirements and potential attacks in an AVP system, and then a privacy-preserving reservation scheme has been proposed based on BBS+ signature and zero-knowledge proof. In the proposed scheme, users can keep anonymous since users only utilize a one-time unlinkable token generated from his/her anonymous credential to achieve parking reservations. In the meantime, by utilizing proxy re-signature, the scheme can also guarantee that one user can only have one token at a time to resist against "Double-Reservation Attack". Secondly, the thesis investigates the conflict between privacy and accountability in a car sharing service, where users can conveniently rent a shared car without human intervention. One basic demand for car sharing service is to check the user's identity to determine his/her validity and enable the user to be accountable if he/she did improper behavior. If the service provider allows users to hide their identities and achieve anonymization to protect user privacy, naturally the car sharing service is unavailable. Aiming at this conflict, a decentralized, privacy-preserving, and accountable car sharing architecture has been proposed in the thesis, where multiple dynamic validation servers are employed to build decentralized trust for users. Under this architecture, the thesis proposes a privacy-preserving identity management scheme to assist in managing users' identities in a dynamic manner based on a verifiable secret sharing/redistribution technique, i.e. the validation servers who manage users' identities are dynamically changed with the time advancing. Moreover, the scheme enables a majority of dynamic validation servers to recover the misbehaving users' identities and guarantees that honest users' identities are confidential to achieve privacy preservation and accountability at the same time. Thirdly, the thesis investigates the conflict between privacy and reliability in a road condition monitoring service, where users can report road conditions to a monitoring service provider to help construct a live map based on crowdsourcing. Usually, a reputation-based mechanism is applied in the service to measure a user's reliability. However, this mechanism cannot be easily integrated with a privacy-preserving mechanism based on user anonymization. When users are anonymous, they can upload arbitrary reports to destroy the service quality and make the service unavailable. Aiming at this conflict, a privacy-preserving crowdsourcing-based road condition monitoring scheme has been proposed in the thesis. By leveraging homomorphic commitments and PS signature, the scheme supports anonymous user reputation management without the assistance of any third-party authority. Furthermore, the thesis proposes several zero-knowledge proof protocols to ensure that a user can keep anonymous and unlinkable but a monitoring service provider can still judge the reliability of this user's report through his/her reputation score. To sum up, with more attention being paid to privacy issues, how to protect user privacy for V2X services becomes more significant. The thesis proposes three effective privacy-preserving mechanisms for V2X services, which resolve the conflict between privacy and availability and can be conveniently integrated into current V2X applications since no trusted third party authority is required. The proposed approaches should be valuable for achieving practical privacy preservation in V2X services

A comprehensive survey of V2X cybersecurity mechanisms and future research paths

Recent advancements in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication have notably improved existing transport systems by enabling increased connectivity and driving autonomy levels. The remarkable benefits of V2X connectivity come inadvertently with challenges which involve security vulnerabilities and breaches. Addressing security concerns is essential for seamless and safe operation of mission-critical V2X use cases. This paper surveys current literature on V2X security and provides a systematic and comprehensive review of the most relevant security enhancements to date. An in-depth classification of V2X attacks is first performed according to key security and privacy requirements. Our methodology resumes with a taxonomy of security mechanisms based on their proactive/reactive defensive approach, which helps identify strengths and limitations of state-of-the-art countermeasures for V2X attacks. In addition, this paper delves into the potential of emerging security approaches leveraging artificial intelligence tools to meet security objectives. Promising data-driven solutions tailored to tackle security, privacy and trust issues are thoroughly discussed along with new threat vectors introduced inevitably by these enablers. The lessons learned from the detailed review of existing works are also compiled and highlighted. We conclude this survey with a structured synthesis of open challenges and future research directions to foster contributions in this prominent field.This work is supported by the H2020-INSPIRE-5Gplus project (under Grant agreement No. 871808), the ”Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformacion Digital” and the European Union-NextGenerationEU in the frameworks of the ”Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia” and of the ”Mecanismo de Recuperación y Resiliencia” under references TSI-063000-2021-39/40/41, and the CHIST-ERA-17-BDSI-003 FIREMAN project funded by the Spanish National Foundation (Grant PCI2019-103780).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Safe Intelligent Driver Assistance System in V2X Communication Environments based on IoT

In the modern world, power and speed of cars have increased steadily, as traffic continued to increase. At the same time highway-related fatalities and injuries due to road incidents are constantly growing and safety problems come first. Therefore, the development of Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) has become a major issue. Numerous innovations, systems and technologies have been developed in order to improve road transportation and safety. Modern computer vision algorithms enable cars to understand the road environment with low miss rates. A number of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), Vehicle Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been applied in the different cities over the world. Recently, a new global paradigm, known as the Internet of Things (IoT) brings new idea to update the existing solutions. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communication based on IoT technologies would be a next step in intelligent transportation for the future Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV). The overall purpose of this research was to come up with a scalable IoT solution for driver assistance, which allows to combine safety relevant information for a driver from different types of in-vehicle sensors, in-vehicle DAS, vehicle networks and driver`s gadgets. This study brushed up on the evolution and state-of-the-art of Vehicle Systems. Existing ITSs, VANETs and DASs were evaluated in the research. The study proposed a design approach for the future development of transport systems applying IoT paradigm to the transport safety applications in order to enable driver assistance become part of Internet of Vehicles (IoV). The research proposed the architecture of the Safe Intelligent DAS (SiDAS) based on IoT V2X communications in order to combine different types of data from different available devices and vehicle systems. The research proposed IoT ARM structure for SiDAS, data flow diagrams, protocols. The study proposes several IoT system structures for the vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-vehicle collision prediction as case studies for the flexible SiDAS framework architecture. The research has demonstrated the significant increase in driver situation awareness by using IoT SiDAS, especially in NLOS conditions. Moreover, the time analysis, taking into account IoT, Cloud, LTE and DSRS latency, has been provided for different collision scenarios, in order to evaluate the overall system latency and ensure applicability for real-time driver emergency notification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SiDAS improves traffic safety

Quality of Service and Associated Communication Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles †

Transportation electrification is pivotal for achieving energy security and emission reduction goals. Electric vehicles (EVs) are at the forefront of this transition, driving the development of new EV technologies and infrastructure. As this trend gains momentum, it becomes essential to enhance the quality of service (QoS) of EVs to encourage their widespread adoption. This paper has been structured with two primary aims to effectively address the above timely technological needs. Firstly, it comprehensively reviews the various QoS factors that influence EVs’ performance and the user experience. Delving into these factors provides valuable insights into how the QoS can be improved, thereby fostering the increased use of EVs on our roads. In addition to the QoS, this paper also explores recent advancements in communication technologies vital for facilitating in-formation exchanges between EVs and charging stations. Efficient communication systems are crucial for optimizing EV operations and enhancing user experiences. This paper presents expert-level technical details in an easily understandable manner, making it a valuable resource for researchers dedicated to improving the QoS of EV communication systems, who are tirelessly working towards a cleaner, more efficient future in transportation. It consolidates the current knowledge in the field and presents the latest discoveries and developments, offering practical insights for enhancing the QoS in electric transportation. A QoS parameter reference map, a detailed classification of QoS parameters, and a classification of EV communication technology references are some of the key contributions of this review paper. In doing so, this paper contributes to the broader objectives of promoting transportation electrification, enhancing energy security, and reducing emissions

Towards a Framework for Preserving Privacy in VANET

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is envisioned as an integral part of the Intelligent Transportation Systems as it promises various services and benefits such as road safety, traffic efficiency, navigation and infotainment services. However, the security and privacy risks associated with the wireless communication are often overlooked. Messages exchanged in VANET wireless communication carry inferable Personally Identifiable Information(PII). This introduces several privacy threats that could limit the adoption of VANET. The quantification of these privacy threats is an active research area in VANET security and privacy domains. The Pseudonymisation technique is currently the most preferred solution for critical privacy threats in VANET to provide conditional anonymous authentication. In the existing literature, several Pseudonym Changing Schemes(PCS) have been proposed as effective de-identification approaches to prevent the inference of PII. However, for various reasons, none of the proposed schemes received public acceptance. Moreover, one of the open research challenges is to compare different PCSs under varying circumstances with a set of standardized experimenting parameters and consistent metrics. In this research, we propose a framework to assess the effectiveness of PCSs in VANET with a systematic approach. This comprehensive equitable framework consists of a variety of building blocks which are segmented into correlated sub-domains named Mobility Models, Adversary Models, and Privacy Metrics. Our research introduces a standard methodology to evaluate and compare VANET PCSs using a generic simulation setup to obtain optimal, realistic and most importantly, consistent results. This road map for the simulation setup aims to help the research \& development community to develop, assess and compare the PCS with standard set of parameters for proper analysis and reporting of new PCSs. The assessment of PCS should not only be equitable but also realistic and feasible. Therefore, the sub-domains of the framework need coherent as well as practically applicable characteristics. The Mobility Model is the layout of the traffic on the road which has varying features such as traffic density and traffic scenarios based on the geographical maps. A diverse range of Adversary Models is important for pragmatic evaluation of the PCSs which not only considers the presence of global passive adversary but also observes the effect of intelligent and strategic \u27local attacker\u27 placements. The biggest challenge in privacy measurement is the fact that it is a context-based evaluation. In the literature, the PCSs are evaluated using either user-oriented or adversary-oriented metrics. Under all circumstances, the PCSs should be assessed from both user and adversary perspectives. Using this framework, we determined that a local passive adversary can be strong based on the attacking capabilities. Therefore, we propose two intelligent adversary placements which help in privacy assessment with realistic adversary modelling. When the existing PCSs are assessed with our systematic approach, consistent models and metrics, we identified the privacy vulnerabilities and the limitations of existing PCSs. There was a need for comprehensive PCS which consider the context of the vehicles and the changing traffic patterns in the neighbourhood. Consequently, we developed a Context-Aware \& Traffic Based PCS that focuses on increasing the overall rate of confusion for the adversary and to reduce deterministic information regarding the pseudonym change. It is achieved by increasing the number of dynamic attributes in the proposed PCS for inference of the changing pattern of the pseudonyms. The PCS increases the anonymity of the vehicle by having the synchronized pseudonym changes. The details given under the sub-domains of the framework solidifies our findings to strengthen the privacy assessment of our proposed PCS

Failure Analysis in Next-Generation Critical Cellular Communication Infrastructures

The advent of communication technologies marks a transformative phase in critical infrastructure construction, where the meticulous analysis of failures becomes paramount in achieving the fundamental objectives of continuity, security, and availability. This survey enriches the discourse on failures, failure analysis, and countermeasures in the context of the next-generation critical communication infrastructures. Through an exhaustive examination of existing literature, we discern and categorize prominent research orientations with focuses on, namely resource depletion, security vulnerabilities, and system availability concerns. We also analyze constructive countermeasures tailored to address identified failure scenarios and their prevention. Furthermore, the survey emphasizes the imperative for standardization in addressing failures related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the ambit of the sixth-generation (6G) networks, accounting for the forward-looking perspective for the envisioned intelligence of 6G network architecture. By identifying new challenges and delineating future research directions, this survey can help guide stakeholders toward unexplored territories, fostering innovation and resilience in critical communication infrastructure development and failure prevention