Mimicking biometrics on smart devices and its application in iot security for health systems

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses cyber and physical objects in multidisciplinary applications such as home automation, industrial process, environmental monitoring, and human health, to mention a few. Especially the latter systems have seen rapid growth in hospitals and health centers over the last decade. The wireless healthcare monitoring devices of various technologies are presenting global interest, since they offer valuable health metrics to users and physicians and also they are easy to use on a day-to-day basis. This chapter refers to security issues associated to IoT devices in general and how a technique of bio-mimicking on smart devices may reveal potential attacks or malfunctions. The case of systems for healthcare and health monitoring is considered, in order to highlight the techniques’ benefits in this topic. The approach is bio-inspired by human biometrics and adopted to fit the cyber world, referring to a device’s state; specifically the paradigm of side channel attack is exploited. This introduces the notion that to secure devices for healthcare, the designer has to consider the “health status” of the device itself. Taking into consideration that these devices are limited by their functionality and functional characteristics, it is expected that any deviation from the expected normal operation would result in a similar deviation in any operational parameter.