Energy Cyber Attacks to Smart Healthcare Devices: A Testbed

TL;DR

This paper investigates how energy-focused cyber attacks like DDoS and Fake Access Points affect the connectivity and energy use of WiFi-enabled smart healthcare devices, revealing critical vulnerabilities and attack thresholds.

Contribution

It introduces a testbed for analyzing energy cyber attacks on smart healthcare devices, providing new insights into attack impacts on device connectivity and energy consumption.

Findings

Identified attack rates that disrupt device services

Quantified energy consumption increases during attacks

Analyzed factors influencing energy use such as protocols and payloads

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has garnered significant interest in both research and industry due to its profound impact on human life. The rapid expansion of IoT technology has ushered in smart healthcare, smart devices, smart cities, and smart grids. However, the security of IoT devices, particularly in healthcare, has become a major concern, with recent attacks revealing serious vulnerabilities. In IoT networks, where connected devices are susceptible to resource-constraint attacks, such as energy consumption attacks, security is paramount. This paper explores the impact of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and Fake Access Points (F-APs) attacks on WiFi-enabled smart healthcare devices. Specifically, it investigates how these attacks can disrupt service on victim devices and Access Points (APs), focusing on device connectivity and energy consumption during attacks. Key findings include identifying the attack rates of DDoS attacks that disrupt services and quantifying the energy consumption impact of Energy Consumption Distributed Denial of Service (EC-DDoS) and F-APs attacks on smart healthcare devices. The study highlights communication protocols, attack rates, payload sizes, and port states of victim devices as critical factors influencing energy consumption. These insights provide a comprehensive understanding of IoT device vulnerabilities in smart healthcare environments and lay the groundwork for future defense strategies.