IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices

Over the past decade, focus on the security and privacy aspects of implantable medical devices (IMDs) has intensified, driven by the multitude of cybersecurity vulnerabilities found in various existing devices. However, due to their strict computational, energy and physical constraints, conventional...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Muhammad Ali Siddiqi, Christian Doerr, Christos Strydis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
IMD
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9165063/
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spelling doaj-fd8288270ed5453aa8e2cae53d5812052021-03-30T01:57:56ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-01814794814796410.1109/ACCESS.2020.30156869165063IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical DevicesMuhammad Ali Siddiqi0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8554-7077Christian Doerr1Christos Strydis2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0935-9322Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, CN, The NetherlandsCyber Threat Intelligence Laboratory, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, GermanyDepartment of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, CN, The NetherlandsOver the past decade, focus on the security and privacy aspects of implantable medical devices (IMDs) has intensified, driven by the multitude of cybersecurity vulnerabilities found in various existing devices. However, due to their strict computational, energy and physical constraints, conventional security protocols are not directly applicable to IMDs. Custom-tailored schemes have been proposed instead which, however, fail to cover the full spectrum of security features that modern IMDs and their ecosystems so critically require. In this paper we propose IMDfence, a security protocol for IMD ecosystems that provides a comprehensive yet practical security portfolio, which includes availability, non-repudiation, access control, entity authentication, remote monitoring and system scalability. The protocol also allows emergency access that results in the graceful degradation of offered services without compromising security and patient safety. The performance of the security protocol as well as its feasibility and impact on modern IMDs are extensively analyzed and evaluated. We find that IMDfence achieves the above security requirements at a mere less than 7% increase in total IMD energy consumption, and less than 14 ms and 9 kB increase in system delay and memory footprint, respectively.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9165063/Authentication protocolbattery-depletion attackbattery DoSdenial-of-service attackIMDimplantable medical device
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
Christian Doerr
Christos Strydis
spellingShingle Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
Christian Doerr
Christos Strydis
IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
IEEE Access
Authentication protocol
battery-depletion attack
battery DoS
denial-of-service attack
IMD
implantable medical device
author_facet Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
Christian Doerr
Christos Strydis
author_sort Muhammad Ali Siddiqi
title IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
title_short IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
title_full IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
title_fullStr IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
title_full_unstemmed IMDfence: Architecting a Secure Protocol for Implantable Medical Devices
title_sort imdfence: architecting a secure protocol for implantable medical devices
publisher IEEE
series IEEE Access
issn 2169-3536
publishDate 2020-01-01
description Over the past decade, focus on the security and privacy aspects of implantable medical devices (IMDs) has intensified, driven by the multitude of cybersecurity vulnerabilities found in various existing devices. However, due to their strict computational, energy and physical constraints, conventional security protocols are not directly applicable to IMDs. Custom-tailored schemes have been proposed instead which, however, fail to cover the full spectrum of security features that modern IMDs and their ecosystems so critically require. In this paper we propose IMDfence, a security protocol for IMD ecosystems that provides a comprehensive yet practical security portfolio, which includes availability, non-repudiation, access control, entity authentication, remote monitoring and system scalability. The protocol also allows emergency access that results in the graceful degradation of offered services without compromising security and patient safety. The performance of the security protocol as well as its feasibility and impact on modern IMDs are extensively analyzed and evaluated. We find that IMDfence achieves the above security requirements at a mere less than 7% increase in total IMD energy consumption, and less than 14 ms and 9 kB increase in system delay and memory footprint, respectively.
topic Authentication protocol
battery-depletion attack
battery DoS
denial-of-service attack
IMD
implantable medical device
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9165063/
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