Prospect of Internet of Medical Things: A Review on Security Requirements and Solutions

Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 24;22(15):5517. doi: 10.3390/s22155517.

Abstract

With the widespread and increasing use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices in all aspects of daily life, a hopeful future for people, data, and processes is emerging. Extensive spans allow for an integrated life cycle to be created from home to enterprise. The Internet of Medical things (IoMT) forms a flourishing surface that incorporates the sensitive information of human life being sent to doctors or hospitals. These open an enormous space for hackers to utilize flaws of the IoMT network to make a profit. This creates a demand for standardizing regulations and a secure system. Though many authorities are making standards, there are some lacking in the system which makes the product vulnerable. Although many established mechanisms are present for the IoT network, there are a number of obstacles preventing its general implementation in the IoMT network. One of the adoption challenges is the IoMT devices itself, because many IoMT networks consist of battery-powered devices with constrained processing capability. A general overview of the different security integrations with IoT applications has been presented in several papers. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an overview of the IoMT ecosystem, regulations, challenges of standards, security mechanisms using cryptographic solutions, physical unclonable functions (PUF)-based solutions, blockchain, and named data networking (NDN) as well, with pros and cons.

Keywords: Internet of Medical Things; blockchain; encryption; named data networking; physical unclonable function; security and privacy.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Blockchain*
  • Computer Security
  • Ecosystem
  • Humans
  • Internet of Things*

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.