TWC: Small: Physiological Information Leakage: A New Front on Health Information Security

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With the growing use of implantable and wearable medical devices, information security for such devices has become a major concern. Prior work in this area mostly focuses on attacks on the wireless communication channel among these devices and health data stored in online databases. The proposed work is a departure from this line of research and is motivated by acoustic and electromagnetic physiological information leakage from the medical devices. This type of information leakage can also directly occur from the human body, thus raising privacy concerns. This proposal will investigate physiological information from both the medical devices and the body itself and find countermeasures against this form of information leakage. This research will be accompanied with rapid dissemination of results, placement of software tools on the web for other researchers to take advantage of, and inclusion of the newly discovered material in a course that the PI teaches. In addition to graduate students, undergraduates and high school students will also take part in this research, with emphasis on participation by students from underrepresented groups.This proposal investigates privacy attacks on human health by targeting physiological signals that continuously emanate from the human body due to the normal functioning of its organs., as well as the signals that emanate from implantable and wearable medical devices. It will also investigate metadata (frequency of communication, time between consecutive transmissions, communication protocol, packet size, detection range, modulation protocol, etc.) collected from such devices to see how they leak vital health information. Finally, it will develop countermeasures against health information leakage from these devices. A comprehensive evaluation of data leakage from the human heart, lungs, skin, devices like insulin pumps and blood pressure monitors would follow.