Cybersecurity and Compliance in Healthcare: A Study on Key Management and Other Regulatory Requirements

Abstract

Typically, WSNs are implemented in several applications with various topologies. Nodes use wireless mode of communication, and unattended areas are typically selected for WSN deployment. Attack risk is higher in WSNs. Furthermore, the WSN nodes have severe resource constraints. It is quite difficult to provide security in such a setting. Numerous protocols for key management chores and encryption strategies for maintaining security in the WSN environment have been documented in literature. The criticality of the data being transferred over the network determines how complex the assault will be. Applications that monitor agriculture, for example, are safe from attacks. However, applications related to the military and healthcare could attract attackers who are far more skilled. Applications that involve process control and habitat monitoring attract attackers with medium to low skill levels. There isn't a single protocol available right now that could be flexible enough to meet the different requirements of the apps, which typically have variable security requirements. For these different applications, there are differences in the key management task, which is strongly related to the security requirements. As a result, the precise kind and complexity of the key management technique must be chosen and built in accordance with the necessary level of security, the capabilities of the hardware devices available, and the network topology that is used.