Lightweight encryption for short-range wireless biometric authentication systems in Industry 4.0

Most recent solutions for users’ authentication in Industry 4.0 scenarios are based on unique biological characteristics that are captured from users and recognized using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. These biometric applications tend to be computationally heavy, so to monitor users in an unobtrusive manner, sensing and processing modules are physically separated and connected through point-to-point wireless communication technologies. However, in this approach, sensors are very resource constrained, and common cryptographic techniques to protect private users’ information while traveling in the radio channel cannot be implemented because their computational cost. Thus, new security solutions for those biometric authentication systems in their short-range wireless communications are needed. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new cryptographic approach addressing this scenario. The proposed solution employs lightweight operations to create a secure symmetric encryption solution. This cipher includes a pseudo-random number generator based, also, on simple computationally low-cost operations in order to create the secret key. In order to preserve and provide good security properties, the key generation and the encryption processes are fed with a chaotic number sequence obtained through the numerical integration of a new four-order hyperchaotic dynamic. An experimental analysis and a performance evaluation are provided in the experimental section, showing the good behavior of the described solution.