Powerless security for Cardiac Implantable Medical Devices: Use of Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform

In this paper, we propose a powerless security solution to protect cardiac IMDs against security threats. We firstly identify and classify the main security attacks threatening IMDs, then we extend the IMD architecture by introducing a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system. Thanks to the use of a Radio Frequency energy harvesting solution, we design a powerless mutual authentication protocol between the IMD and the programmer allowing the prevention against battery depletion attacks. We also implement a technique for the dynamic biometric keys extraction from electrocardiogram signals collected at both sides (the programmer and the IMD), allowing a secure generation and distribution of master keys between the IMD and the programmer. A discussion about the main properties offered by the proposed solution and a simulation is conducted to evaluate its efficiency in protecting cardiac IMDs.