Wearable wireless sensor networks for healthcare

: privacy and security considerations

Abstract

Wearable Wireless Sensor Network (WWSN) devices are widely used in healthcare to monitor health data. However, when WWSN users transmit their data to healthcare professionals or third parties over wireless connections, they face privacy and security vulnerabilities. This thesis aims to identify the unsolved privacy and security challenges in wearable sensor devices in healthcare, especially aspects overlooked by previous research. The main research question was: What are the unsolved privacy and security challenges in wearable sensor devices in healthcare, and what are their implications for users and healthcare professionals? This systematic review employed specific keywords to search for relevant publications on bibliographic databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) charts helped to screen and summarise the selected papers. The results highlighted the critical areas that can make WWSNs vulnerable to security attacks. The findings examined the security and privacy issues of wearable sensor devices in cloud computing, fog computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the like. Many studies examined IoT due to its privacy and security challenges, especially around handling extensive data, using public channels, deploying advanced technologies, managing sharing policies alongside the growing number of wireless devices, and protecting data from hackers. These challenges seriously threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of health data transmitted by WWSN users to healthcare professionals or third parties in cloud-based environments and IoT, exacerbated by limited resources. The significant findings thereby focused on unresolved areas in IoT. This thesis aims to safeguard against cyber-attacks on healthcare and increase users' adoption rate of WWSN devices.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Seyed Shahrestani (Supervisor) & Chun Ruan (Supervisor)