When using an insecure communication channel, the initial step involves authenticating the user (verifying the other party) to ensure the legitimacy of the communication partner, followed by encrypted communication. With the advancement of quantum computers, many conventional cryptographic techniques are at risk of being deciphered. While postquantum cryptographic approaches are under development, they often demand substantial computational resources, making them difficult to implement in resourceconstrained environments such as the Internet of Things (IoT). This study proposes a user authentication and secure communication system that guarantees information-theoretic security by leveraging secure computation based on a computationally lightweight (k, n)-threshold secret sharing scheme. The proposed authentication approach utilizes constantly changing information to prevent replay attacks and enhance security. It is further demonstrated that secure communication with information-theoretic guarantees can be achieved without the need to distribute a large volume of true random numbers, relying instead on secret sharing-based secure computation. The proposed methods are particularly suitable for IoT applications due to their minimal processing overhead and efficient performance.
When using an insecure communication channel, the initial step involves authenticating the user (verifying the other party) to ensure the legitimacy of the communication partner, followed by encrypted communication. With the advancement of quantum computers, many conventional cryptographic techniques are at risk of being deciphered. While postquantum cryptographic approaches are under development, they often demand substantial computational resources, making them difficult to implement in resourceconstrained environments such as the Internet of Things (IoT). This study proposes a user authentication and secure communication system that guarantees information-theoretic security by leveraging secure computation based on a computationally lightweight (k, n)-threshold secret sharing scheme. The proposed authentication approach utilizes constantly changing information to prevent replay attacks and enhance security. It is further demonstrated that secure communication with information-theoretic guarantees can be achieved without the need to distribute a large volume of true random numbers, relying instead on secret sharing-based secure computation. The proposed methods are particularly suitable for IoT applications due to their minimal processing overhead and efficient performance.
When using an insecure communication channel, the initial step involves authenticating the user (verifying the other party) to ensure the legitimacy of the communication partner, followed by encrypted communication. Public-key encryption-based digital signatures are widely utilized for user authentication; however, they is highly likely that it will be deciphered with the development of quantum computers. Studies are also being conducted on post-quantum cryptography, although it requires significant computational resources and is challenging to implement in Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Consequently, this study suggests the implementation of user authentication and secure communication that guarantees information-theoretic security through the use of a secure computation based on a computationally light (k, n) threshold secret sharing scheme. In this study, we first propose a user authentication system with information-theoretical security utilizing constantly changing information. Subsequently, we demonstrate that secure communication with information-theoretic security can be achieved without the need to distribute a substantial amount of true random numbers, by employing a secure computation based on (k, n) threshold secret sharing. Our proposed methods are suitable for implementation in an IoT environment, as they require minimal processing overhead. We also demonstrate the practical application of the proposed methods through implementation using C++. For example, the claimant’s average execution time is less than 0.1 [ms], and the proposed methods are very efficient.
The rapid expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems has introduced significant security challenges due to resource-constrained devices, heterogeneous network architectures, and largescale connectivity. Traditional authentication and key exchange mechanisms, primarily based on classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECC, are vulnerable to future quantum computing attacks. The emergence of quantum algorithms, particularly Shor’s algorithm, threatens the long-term confidentiality and integrity of IoT communications. This paper proposes a Quantum-Resistant Authentication and Key Exchange Protocol specifically designed for secure IoT architectures. The proposed framework integrates post-quantum cryptographic primitives, including lattice-based key exchange mechanisms and hash-based authentication schemes, optimized for low computational overhead suitable for constrained IoT devices. The protocol ensures mutual authentication, forward secrecy, and resistance against quantum adversaries while maintaining minimal communication latency. Security analysis demonstrates robustness against replay, man-in-the-middle, and key-compromise attacks. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed solution achieves a balance between quantum security strength and resource efficiency, making it suitable for next-generation IoT deployments in smart cities, healthcare systems, and industrial automation.
Abstract The next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) networks and mobile communications (5G IoT networks) has the particularity of being heterogeneous, therefore, it has very strong ability to compute, store, etc. Group-oriented applications demonstrate its potential ability in 5G IoT networks. One of the main challenges for secure group-oriented applications (SGA) in 5G IoT networks is how to secure communication and computation among these heterogeneous devices. Conventional protocols are not suitable for SGA in 5G IoT networks since multiparty joint computation in this environment requires lightweight communication and computation overhead. Furthermore, the primary task of SGA is to securely transmit various types of jointly computing data. Hence, membership authentication and secure multiparty joint arithmetic computation become two fundamental security services in SGA for 5G IoT networks. The membership authentication allows communication entities to authenticate their communication partners and the multiparty joint computations allow a secret output to be shared among all communication entities. The multiparty joint computation result can be used to protect exchange information in the communication or be used as a result that all users jointly compute by using their secret inputs. A novel construction of computation/communications-efficient membership authenticated joint arithmetic computation is proposed in this paper for 5G IoT networks, which not only integrates the function of membership authentication and joint arithmetic computation but also realizes both computation and communication efficiency on each group member side. Our protocol is secure against inside attackers and outside attackers, and also meets all the described security goals. Meanwhile, in this construction the privacy of tokens can be well protected so tokens can be reused multiple times. This proposal is noninteractive and can be easily extended to joint arithmetic computation with any number of inputs. Hence, our design has more attraction for lightweight membership authenticated joint arithmetic computation in 5G IoT networks.
The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has connected billions of smart devices across healthcare, transportation, industrial automation, and smart home environments. While IoT has enhanced automation and data-driven decision-making, its widespread deployment has also increased the risk of cyberattacks. Conventional public-key cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) are vulnerable to future quantum computing attacks, particularly those based on Shor's algorithm. This paper proposes a Quantum-Resistant Cryptographic Framework (QRCF) for secure IoT communication using lattice-based cryptography integrated with lightweight authentication and efficient key management. The framework is designed to meet the computational limitations of IoT devices while ensuring long-term confidentiality and integrity. Performance evaluation demonstrates improvements in security resilience, authentication efficiency, and communication reliability compared with traditional cryptographic approaches. The proposed framework offers a scalable and future-ready solution for protecting IoT ecosystems in the post-quantum era.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is being applied to various environments such as telecare systems, smart homes, and intelligent transportation systems. The information generated from IoT devices is stored at remote servers, and external users authenticate to the server for requesting access to the stored data. In IoT environments, the authentication process is required to be conducted efficiently, and should be secure against various attacks and ensure user anonymity and untraceability to ensure sustainability of the network. However, many existing protocols proposed in IoT environments do not meet these requirements. Recently, Rajaram et al. proposed a paring-based user authentication scheme. We found that the Rajaram et al. scheme is vulnerable to various attacks such as offline password guessing, impersonation, privileged insider, and known session-specific temporary information attacks. Additionally, as their scheme uses bilinear pairing, it requires high computation and communication costs. In this study, we propose a novel authentication scheme that resolves these security problems. The proposed scheme uses only hash and exclusive-or operations to be applicable in IoT environments. We analyze the proposed protocol using informal analysis and formal analysis methods such as the BAN logic, real-or-random (ROR) model, and the AVISPA simulation, and we show that the proposed protocol has better security and performance compared with existing authentication protocols. Consequently, the proposed protocol is sustainable and suitable for real IoT environments.
The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things devices (IoT) across healthcare, smart homes, transportation, and industrial automation has led to an unprecedented exchange of sensitive data over wireless channels, exposing these networks to cyberattacks, eavesdropping, and unauthorized access.Conventional cryptographic techniques, which rely on computational hardness assumptions, are increasingly vulnerable to the emerging capabilities of quantum computing.This paper explores the application of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) as a means of enabling secure and dependable data communication for IoT devices.By exploiting the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, QKD allows two communicating parties to generate a shared secret key while inherently detecting any attempt at interception.The proposed approach aims to enhance data privacy, ensure secure authentication, preserve confidentiality, and safeguard IoT systems against present and future quantum enabled threats.The integration of quantum based security techniques into existing IoT infrastructure is examined, along with its implications for improving the reliability and trustworthiness of wireless IoT communication systems.This work positions Quantum Enhanced Secure Data Communication as a forward looking security solution for next generation IoT networks.