Mutual authentication enabled trust model for vehicular energy networks using Blockchain in Smart Healthcare Systems

Abstract

Healthcare systems face critical issues worldwide such as data breaches, lack of interoperability and inefficiencies in patient data management. These challenges hinder the quality of care and patient outcomes. The increasing adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Smart Healthcare Systems (SHSs) has brought about new security and privacy challenges. EVs, including electric ambulances, rely on communication networks to exchange critical information and perform energy trading. However, the open nature of these networks makes them vulnerable to various attacks, such as false information dissemination and collusion attacks. In the recent years, Blockchain (BC) technology has emerged as a transformative solution for various industries, including healthcare. The integration of BC in healthcare systems offers enhanced security, transparency and efficiency in managing patient data and other critical information. The paper introduces a data-oriented trust paradigm that is facilitated by revocation transparency. In order to enable the present EVs operating in a SHS to realize their full potential, the model aims to successfully manage security, privacy, storage and other issues. The electric ambulance, an integral part of an SHS, is a special type of EV, which is considered in the study. The proposed approach employs the Password Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling (J-PAKE) mechanism to provide mutual authentication across distinct entities inside a SHS. Moreover, the Real-time Message Content Validation (RMCV) approach precludes collusion attacks by performing a message credibility check. Moving ahead, anonymization of reputation data is performed via K-anonymity algorithm. Restrictions on the identification of the consistent patterns seen in the reputation data serve to avoid privacy leaks. Additionally, a Proof of Revocation (PoR) technique helps to provide revocation transparency. The Inter Planetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized storage system, houses the vehicle data in order to lessen the BC storage problem. Hashes of the data recorded in IPFS are also uploaded to the immutable BC ledger to prevent disputes. Moreover, IPFS and Cuckoo Filters (CFs) are used to enhance the efficiency of the system. In terms of execution time, data size and storage overhead, the performance evaluation is carried out to assess the proposed model’s efficiency. The simulation results show the execution time for a vast number of messages to be less than 0.6 s. Moreover, K-anonymity ensures storage overhead reduction of almost 35%–40%. Finally, Oyente is used to identify bugs in the smart contract. Overall, it is determined that the proposed approach is effective in establishing mutual authentication, revocation transparency and trust.