An efficient key management solution for privacy masking, restoring and user authentication for video surveillance servers

• This paper proposes a key distribution scheme for distributed video surveillance servers.
• The scheme introduces security protocols to authenticate multiple privileged users.
• The scheme also includes privacy masking and restoration strategies used in case of crimes.
• Hierarchical restoration of the privacy masks with different privileges is possible using the proposed scheme.
• Security evaluation on the proposed protocols is included in a new section.

In this paper, we surveyed technical elements of video surveillance systems and proposed several countermeasures to effectively manage a number of keys for image encryption, privacy protection and user authentication. In addition, we proposed several solutions for potential problems that could arise when the system adopts a privacy masking policy for each user. The proposed solutions selectively implement a Kerberos approach, a round keys approach and a double hash chain approach. For secure video surveillance systems, protecting privacy and providing accessibility through strong user authentication and prioritized authorization is expected.