Abstract The primary objective of postquantum cryptography (also known as quantum‐resistant cryptography) is to develop the cryptographic systems that need to be robust against both quantum and classical computers, and can also interoperate with the existing communications protocols and networks. In an Internet of Things (IoT) environment, the communicated messages contain sensitive information that are transmitted over an open channel, where message integrity and data privacy become challenging tasks. Although several traditional cryptographic security protocols can be applied for IoT security and data privacy, such as authentication, access control, key agreement, and digital signature, but they are not resilient against quantum attacks. To overcome these issues, in this article, we first present an advanced and efficient construction of postquantum lattice‐based signcryption scheme, and then apply the constructed lattice‐based signcryption in IoT applications, where data sensed by the deployed IoT smart devices is securely stored at the cloud, via the gateway nodes (aggregators). The data stored at the cloud servers cannot be even modified by them due to the involved signatures generated by the aggregators. The formal security analysis shows the robustness of our designed lattice‐based signcryption scheme. Other detailed information security analysis and a performance analysis with the traditional number‐theoretical based public key cryptosystems show the efficacy, and significantly better security and functionality features of the proposed scheme under the lattice‐based postquantum context.
Abstract The primary objective of postquantum cryptography (also known as quantum‐resistant cryptography) is to develop the cryptographic systems that need to be robust against both quantum and classical computers, and can also interoperate with the existing communications protocols and networks. In an Internet of Things (IoT) environment, the communicated messages contain sensitive information that are transmitted over an open channel, where message integrity and data privacy become challenging tasks. Although several traditional cryptographic security protocols can be applied for IoT security and data privacy, such as authentication, access control, key agreement, and digital signature, but they are not resilient against quantum attacks. To overcome these issues, in this article, we first present an advanced and efficient construction of postquantum lattice‐based signcryption scheme, and then apply the constructed lattice‐based signcryption in IoT applications, where data sensed by the deployed IoT smart devices is securely stored at the cloud, via the gateway nodes (aggregators). The data stored at the cloud servers cannot be even modified by them due to the involved signatures generated by the aggregators. The formal security analysis shows the robustness of our designed lattice‐based signcryption scheme. Other detailed information security analysis and a performance analysis with the traditional number‐theoretical based public key cryptosystems show the efficacy, and significantly better security and functionality features of the proposed scheme under the lattice‐based postquantum context.
Identity-based encryption is an important cryptographic system that is employed to ensure confidentiality of a message in communication. This article presents a provably secure identity based encryption based on post quantum security assumption. The security of the proposed encryption is based on the hard problem, namely Learning with Errors on integer lattices. This construction is anonymous and produces pseudo random ciphers. Both public-key size and ciphertext-size have been reduced in the proposed encryption as compared to those for other relevant schemes without compromising the security. Next, we incorporate the constructed identity based encryption (IBE) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, where the IoT smart devices send securely the sensing data to their nearby gateway nodes(s) with the help of IBE and the gateway node(s) secure aggregate the data from the smart devices by decrypting the messages using the proposed IBE decryption. Later, the gateway nodes will securely send the aggregated data to the cloud server(s) and the Big data analytics is performed on the authenticated data using the Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) algorithms for accurate and better predictions.
Many classical cryptographic techniques are breakable due to the quantum computing security threats, and it leads to design public key cryptography based on post-quantum cryptography primitives and security protocols. In recent years, Lattice-Based Cryptography (LBC) becomes a prominent post-quantum cryptographic primitive that can be applied in both traditional and emerging security domains, including encryption, key agreement, digital signature and homomorphic encryption. In this article, we first provide a LBC-based security framework using aggregate signature that can be applied in ambient intelligence-assisted blockchain-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications, called LAS-AIBIoT. In LAS-AIBIoT, the wearable/medical devices deployed in the patients' body securely send the sensing secret data (encrypted messages) with their respective lattice-based signatures to their nearby controller nodes (CN), where the CNs forward these secret messages to the attached aggregator node (Aggr). Each Aggr verifies the individual signature of the devices and constructs the aggregate signature on the received secret messages and signatures, and sends the aggregated secret messages with their aggregate signature to the cloud server(s) for block construction in the blockchain center. Through the consensus protocol, the block is then mined and added into the blokchain. We show the robustness of LAS-AIBIoT against various potential attacks including quantum computing security threats through the threat model discussed in this article. Finally, through the blockchain-based simulation study we show that LAS-AIBIoT can be applied for real-time ambient intelligence-assisted IoT applications.
Abstract The integration of lattice‐based cryptography principles with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocols is explored to enhance security in the context of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems. With the advent of quantum computing, traditional cryptographic methods are increasingly susceptible to attacks, necessitating the development of quantum‐resistant approaches. By leveraging the inherent resilience of lattice‐based cryptography, a synergistic fusion with QKD is proposed to establish secure and robust communication channels among IoT devices. Through comprehensive Qiskit simulations and theoretical analysis, the feasibility, security guarantees, and performance implications of this novel hybrid approach are thoroughly investigated. The findings not only demonstrate the efficacy of lattice‐based QKD in mitigating quantum threats, but also highlight its potential to fortify IoT communications against emerging security challenges. Moreover, the authors provide valuable insights into the practical implementation considerations and scalability aspects of this fusion approach. This research contributes to advancing the understanding of quantum‐resistant cryptography for IoT applications and paves the way for further exploration and development in this critical domain.
Abstract As the number and characteristics of smart devices change, the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) emerges. The IoT provides the connected devices with a variety of resources that enable effective communication. At this point, several security issues arise to get the sensitive information behind every communication in the IoT. To provide users with security and privacy, cryptographic schemes are adopted, the most popular being public key cryptographic systems (PKC). However, with the advent of quantum computing, the level of security that can be provided by the PKC schemes is a big question. Another important issue is that the IoT environment is resource‐constrained, which necessitates the implementation of lightweight cryptographic algorithms for better security. In response to these issues, the post‐quantum cryptographic (PQC) schemes are one of the significant developments contributing to IoT security in the post‐quantum world. This article examines the key security issues in the IoT environment and examines the effective solutions found in the literature. The problems in IoT in the quantum era are discussed and appropriate solutions by PKC schemes under limited resources in IoT are focused. As the lattice‐based cryptosystems are more effective, the importance of these schemes in the resource‐constrained IoT is highlighted. This survey also leads to feasible future directions that can support developers and researchers in this field.
A lightweight, robust, and efficient security mechanism is necessary to combat quantum-generation threats across multiple domains, including healthcare, transportation, and industrial automation, in the Internet of Things (IoT). Post-quantum cryptography has emerged in response to the increasing vulnerability of traditional cryptographic methods, such as RSA and ECC, to quantum attacks. Taking advantage of the hardness of Short Integer Solutions (SIS) and Learning with Errors (LWE), we propose a lattice-based signature scheme for IoT applications. A computationally efficient IoT device model that maintains authenticated, integrity, and anonymity is proposed. The scheme has the advantage of being faster and more efficient than existing key size schemes such as IBS, CLS, and FALCON, according to a detailed security assessment. The proposed scheme maintains practical deployment ability while reducing post-quantum security in IoT ecosystems.
The enormous benefits of Internet of Things (IoT) technology have driven its deployment in various applications. Additionally, the development of quantum computers has directed attention towards lattice-based cryptography. Consequently, the computational capabilities of quantum computers pose a threat to the security of the existing IoT signature mechanisms. Quantum computers are proficient at unraveling the complexity bound of computationally hard problems like the integer factorization problem (IFP) and the discrete logarithm problem (DLP). As a result, security is an essential requirement for the IoT communication network against quantum attacks. The amalgamation of certificateless public key cryptosystems (CL-PKC) and lattice-based cryptography (LBC) is one of the solution for alleviating these security menaces. Lucidly, CL-PKC prevents key escrow issues and key management problems; LBC prevents quantum attacks. The Shortest Integer Solution (SIS) problem, which the NTRU lattices offer, serves as the basis for this paper’s introduction of a certificateless signature mechanism for IoT environments. By adopting the Random Oracle Model, we demonstrated the security of the suggested mechanism against Type 1 and Type 2 attackers. Furthermore, security analysis and performance evaluation demonstrate robust communication, as evidenced by metrics such as the computational cost of CL-Sign and CL-Verify phases at 536μs, 376.81μs and communication cost of KGC at 418 bits, CL-Sign at 532 bits and CL-Verify at 446 bits. Also, we calculate the cost of single-message signature generation and verification on an IoT device. These results show that the suggested mechanism’s security and computational efficiency are more reliable, and efficient than other relevant competing frameworks.