An Efficient Authentication Scheme Using Blockchain as a Certificate Authority for the Internet of Drones

The Internet of Drones (IoD) has recently gained popularity in several military, commercial, and civilian applications due to its unique characteristics, such as high mobility, three-dimensional (3D) movement, and ease of deployment. Drones, on the other hand, communicate over an unencrypted wireless link and have little computational capability in a typical IoD environment, making them exposed to a wide range of cyber-attacks. Security vulnerabilities in IoD systems include man-in-the-middle attacks, impersonation, credential leaking, GPS spoofing, and drone hijacking. To avoid the occurrence of such attacks in IoD networks, we need an extremely powerful security protocol. To address these concerns, we propose a blockchain-based authentication scheme employing Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography (HECC). The concepts of a blockchain as a Certificate Authority (CA) and a transaction as a certificate discussed in this article are meant to facilitate the use of a blockchain without CAs or a Trusted Third Party (TTP). We offer a security analysis of the proposed scheme, which demonstrates its resistance to known and unknown attacks. The proposed scheme resists replay, man-in-the-middle, device impersonation, malicious device deployment, Denial-of-Service (DoS), and De-synchronization attacks, among others. The security and performance of the proposed scheme are compared to relevant existing schemes, and their performance is shown to be better in terms of security attributes as well as computation and communication costs than existing competitive schemes. The total computation cost of the proposed scheme is 40.479 ms, which is 37.49% and 49.79% of the two comparable schemes. This shows that the proposed scheme is better suited to the IoD environment than existing competitive schemes

An Efficient and Conditional Privacy-Preserving Heterogeneous Signcryption Scheme for the Internet of Drones

The Internet of Drones (IoD) is a network for drones that utilizes the existing Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to facilitate mission fulfilment through real-time data transfer and navigation services. IoD deployments, on the other hand, are often conducted in public wireless settings, which raises serious security and privacy concerns. A key source of these security and privacy concerns is the fact that drones often connect with one another through an unprotected wireless channel. Second, limits on the central processing unit (CPU), sensor, storage, and battery capacity make the execution of complicated cryptographic methods onboard a drone impossible. Signcryption is a promising method for overcoming these computational and security limitations. Additionally, in an IoD setting, drones and the ground station (GS) may employ various cryptosystems in a particular region. In this article, we offer a heterogeneous signcryption scheme with a conditional privacy-preservation option. In the proposed scheme, identity-based cryptography (IBC) was used by drones, while the public key infrastructure (PKI) belonged to the GS. The proposed scheme was constructed by using the hyperelliptic curve cryptosystem (HECC), and its security robustness was evaluated using the random oracle model (ROM). In addition, the proposed scheme was compared to the relevant existing schemes in terms of computation and communication costs. The results indicated that the proposed scheme was both efficient and secure, thereby proving its feasibility

An Efficient and Conditional Privacy-Preserving Heterogeneous Signcryption Scheme for the Internet of Drones

The Internet of Drones (IoD) is a network for drones that utilizes the existing Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to facilitate mission fulfilment through real-time data transfer and navigation services. IoD deployments, on the other hand, are often conducted in public wireless settings, which raises serious security and privacy concerns. A key source of these security and privacy concerns is the fact that drones often connect with one another through an unprotected wireless channel. Second, limits on the central processing unit (CPU), sensor, storage, and battery capacity make the execution of complicated cryptographic methods onboard a drone impossible. Signcryption is a promising method for overcoming these computational and security limitations. Additionally, in an IoD setting, drones and the ground station (GS) may employ various cryptosystems in a particular region. In this article, we offer a heterogeneous signcryption scheme with a conditional privacy-preservation option. In the proposed scheme, identity-based cryptography (IBC) was used by drones, while the public key infrastructure (PKI) belonged to the GS. The proposed scheme was constructed by using the hyperelliptic curve cryptosystem (HECC), and its security robustness was evaluated using the random oracle model (ROM). In addition, the proposed scheme was compared to the relevant existing schemes in terms of computation and communication costs. The results indicated that the proposed scheme was both efficient and secure, thereby proving its feasibility

Enabling Secure Communication in Wireless Body Area Networks with Heterogeneous Authentication Scheme

Thanks to the widespread availability of Fifth Generation (5G) wireless connectivity, it is now possible to provide preventative or proactive healthcare services from any location and at any time. As a result of this technological improvement, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a new study of research in the field of healthcare in recent years. WBANs, on the one hand, intend to gather and monitor data from the human body and its surroundings; on the other hand, biomedical devices and sensors interact through an open wireless channel, making them exposed to a range of cyber threats. However, WBANs are a heterogeneous-based system; heterogeneous cryptography is necessary, in which the transmitter and receiver can employ different types of public key cryptography. This article proposes an improved and efficient heterogeneous authentication scheme with a conditional privacy-preserving strategy that provides secure communication in WBANs. In the proposed scheme, we employed certificateless cryptography on the client side and Identity-Based Cryptography on the receiver side. The proposed scheme employs Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography (HECC), a more advanced variation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). HECC achieves the same level of security with a smaller key size and a more efficient approach than its counterpart methods. The proposed scheme not only meets the security and privacy standards of WBANs but also enhances efficiency in terms of computation and communication costs, according to the findings of the security and performance analysis

A Conditional Privacy Preserving Generalized Ring Signcryption Scheme for Micro Aerial Vehicles

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are a type of UAV that are both small and fully autonomous, making them ideal for both civilian and military applications. Modern MAVs can hover and navigate while carrying several sensors, operate over long distances, and send data to a portable base station. Despite their many benefits, MAVs often encounter obstacles due to limitations in the embedded system (such as memory, processing power, energy, etc.). Due to these obstacles and the use of open wireless communication channels, MAVs are vulnerable to a variety of cyber-physical attacks. Consequently, MAVs cannot execute complex cryptographic algorithms due to their limited computing power. In light of these considerations, this article proposes a conditional privacy-preserving generalized ring signcryption scheme for MAVs using an identity-based cryptosystem. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), with a key size of 160 bits, is used in the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme’s security robustness has been analyzed using the Random Oracle Model (ROM), a formal security evaluation method. The proposed scheme is also compared in terms of computation cost, communication cost and memory overhead against relevant existing schemes. The total computation cost of the proposed scheme is 7.76 ms, which is 8.14%, 5.20%, and 11.40% schemes. The results show that the proposed scheme is both efficient and secure, proving its viability