Adaptive time-bound access control for internet of things in fog computing architecture

Abstract

This paper proposes an adaptive Time-Bound Attribute-Based Encryption Scheme (TB-ABE). TB-ABE is a fine-grained data access control scheme that maintains a secure data exchange environment between IoT devices. The lifetime of the system is divided into equal periods of time slots with unique encryption keys. TB-ABE combines Cyphertext-Policy Attribute Based Encryption with Time-bound keys. It only permits data users with attributes that satisfy the access policy set by the data owner to access the data for a specific period. It also proposes an efficient indirect revocation handling mechanism with minimal computations. The proposed scheme is implemented in Fog-Cloud computing architecture, where fog devices are used for partial outsourcing of encryption and decryption operations. This paper provides security and performance analysis for the proposed scheme in terms of computation, storage, communication and energy overheads. Analysis of proposed scheme proves its feasibility for limited-resource devices, while maintaining a secure communication between IoT devices.

Keywords:

• Internet of things
• attribute-based encryption
• fine-grained access control
• fog computing
• cloud storage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noran AboDoma

Noran AboDoma is a master's student in Computer Science, Ain Shams university, specializing in Computer Systems department, with particular interest in energy efficient and secure data exchange schemes tailored for Internet of Things environment. Previously working as a teaching assistant at the British University in Egypt in the Computer Networks department, covering different topics such as Computer Networks, Computer Security and Distributed Systems.

Eman Shaaban

Eman Shaaban received her BSc, MSc, and PhD in computer engineering from Ain-Shams university, faculty of engineering, Cairo, Egypt. She is currently a professor and head of Computer Systems Dept. at Ain-Shams University, faculty of computer and information science. She teaches undergraduates courses on data communication, computer architectures, embedded systems, digital signal processing in addition to teaching graduate courses: Wireless communication, IOT, Real-Time embedded systems, and ad hoc and wireless sensor networks. Her research interests include IOT, Real-Time embedded systems, Wireless Networks, ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, and vehicular communication. She has published over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and major IEEE conference proceeding concerning these research areas.

Ahmad Mostafa

Ahmad Mostafa is an Assistant Professor at The British University in Egypt. He has a Ph.D. from the Center for Distributed and Mobile Computing at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. Mostafa has been a lecturer at several international Universities in the area of cyber-security and has many research publications within this area. His research experience is reinforced by a strong passion for education as he has taught various courses at The British University in Egypt, The University of Cincinnati and other universities in the US over the past ten years. His research interest is in the areas of: network security, Internet of Things, wireless sensor networks, and vehicular networks.