Improving the Privacy-Preserving of Covid-19 Bluetooth-Based Contact Tracing Applications Against Tracking Attacks

Bluetooth is an essential wireless standard for short-distance and low-power wireless networks. Health departments’ contact-tracing applications depended on Bluetooth technology to prevent infectious diseases from spreading, especially COVID-19. The security threats of the Bluetooth-based contact-tracing applications increased because an adversary can use them as surveillance tools that violate the user’s privacy and revealpersonal information. The Bluetooth standard mainly depends on the device address in its authenticated pairing mechanism (Secure Simple Pairing), which can collect with off-the-shelf hardware and software and leads to a tracking attack. To avoid the risk of tracking based on this security vulnerability in the Bluetooth protocol, we suggest a novel authentication protocol based on a noninteractive zero-knowledge scheme to substitute the authentication protocol used in the Bluetooth standard. The new protocol can replace the authentication protocol in the Bluetooth stack without any modification in the device pairing flow. Finally, we prove the security of our proposed scheme against the man-in-themiddle attack and tracking attack. A performance comparison with the authentication algorithm in the BLE standard shows that our method mitigates the tracking attack with low communication messages. Our results help enhance the contact-tracing application’s security in which Bluetooth access is available.

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SLUA-WSN: Secure and Lightweight Three-Factor-Based User Authentication Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20154143 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (15) ◽

pp. 4143 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

SungJin Yu ◽

YoungHo Park

Keyword(s):

Wireless Sensor Networks ◽

Sensor Networks ◽

User Authentication ◽

Formal Analysis ◽

Mutual Authentication ◽

Authentication Protocol ◽

Sensor Nodes ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Security Threats ◽

Three Factor

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are composed of multiple sensor nodes with limited storage, computation, power, and communication capabilities and are widely used in various fields such as banks, hospitals, institutes to national defense, research, and so on. However, useful services are susceptible to security threats because sensitive data in various fields are exchanged via a public channel. Thus, secure authentication protocols are indispensable to provide various services in WSN. In 2019, Mo and Chen presented a lightweight secure user authentication scheme in WSN. We discover that Mo and Chen’s scheme suffers from various security flaws, such as session key exposure and masquerade attacks, and does not provide anonymity, untraceability, and mutual authentication. To resolve the security weaknesses of Mo and Chen’s scheme, we propose a secure and lightweight three-factor-based user authentication protocol for WSN, called SLUA-WSN. The proposed SLUA-WSN can prevent security threats and ensure anonymity, untraceability, and mutual authentication. We analyze the security of SLUA-WSN through the informal and formal analysis, including Burrows–Abadi–Needham (BAN) logic, Real-or-Random (ROR) model, and Automated Verification of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) simulation. Moreover, we compare the performance of SLUA-WSN with some existing schemes. The proposed SLUA-WSN better ensures the security and efficiency than previous proposed scheme and is suitable for practical WSN applications.

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Performance Evaluation of Different Modulation Schemes for Ultra Wide Band Systems

Journal of Electrical Engineering ◽

10.2478/jee-2014-0029 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 65 (3) ◽

pp. 184-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tasnuva Ali ◽

Poppy Siddiqua ◽

Mohammad A. Matin

Keyword(s):

Short Distance ◽

Narrow Band ◽

Wide Band ◽

Performance Comparison ◽

Ultra Wideband ◽

Good Resolution ◽

Transmission Power ◽

Large Bandwidth ◽

Simulation Results ◽

Modulation Schemes

Abstract Ultra-wideband (UWB) signals with a large bandwidth has some advantages like multipath immunity, low transmission power, good resolution for ranging and detecting geo locations, as well as it can resist to narrow-band interference. These signals are used for transmission in short distance with high throughput. In this paper, we have analyzed different modulation schemes for performance comparison in terms of BER with UWB Gaussian second derivative monopulse and wavelet-based monopulse. The simulation results demonstrate that wavelet-based monopulse provides better performance in comparison to the other two monopulses.

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Automatic Contact Tracing for Outbreak Detection Using Hospital Electronic Medical Record Data

10.1101/2020.09.08.20190876 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael E DeWitt

Keyword(s):

Local Level ◽

Outbreak Detection ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

Local Health ◽

Health Departments ◽

Local Health Departments ◽

Public Health Professionals ◽

Record Data ◽

Insight Into ◽

Adequate Staffing

Contact tracing is a well-known tool for public health professionals to trace and isolate contacts of known infectious persons. During a pandemic contact tracing is critical to ending an outbreak, but the volume of cases makes tracing difficult without adequate staffing tools. Hospitals equipped with electronic medical records can utilize these databases to automatically link cases into possible transmission chains and surface potential new outbreaks. While this automatic contact tracing does not have the richness of contact tracing interviews, it does provide a way for health systems to highlight potential super-spreader events and support their local health departments. Additionally, these data provide insight into how a given infection is spreading locally. These insights can be used to inform policy at the local level.

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A Survey of County Health Departments of Kansas Regarding COVID-19

Kansas Journal of Medicine ◽

10.17161/kjm.v13i1.13727 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 112-126

Author(s):

Talkad Raghuveer ◽

Rosey Zackula ◽

Robert Wittler

Keyword(s):

Public Education ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Descriptive Statistics ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Health Departments ◽

Department Of Health ◽

Phone Calls ◽

The Us ◽

Collection Period

Introduction. SARS-CoV-2 virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) causing COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) initially was identified in China in December 2019. It has resulted in a pandemic with increasing spread of the virus in the US. The county health departments around US are spearheading the response to contain the spread of this virus. Methods. This project was a survey of county health departments in the state of Kansas with data collection period from 4/15 to 4/24/2020. This study evaluated the staffing, resources, and funding of these health departments and how it was affecting the efforts to contain COVID-19. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the responses. Results. A total of 75% of the county health departments in Kansas responded to the survey. In 89% of locations, the staffing had not increased. Most health departments had an average of five people and the four largest ones had 30 to 98 staff working on COVID-19. Most locations used the Kansas Department of Health and Environment criteria for testing and used a combination of state or private laboratories. The results of the tests were available three days or longer in 62% and after five days in 14% of sites. All locations were active in contact tracing, but most had 1-3 people for this purpose and in 90% the contact tracing interview was via phone calls. There was no change in funding in 21% and decreased funding in 8.5% of health departments. Most locations had an average of five nasopharyngeal swabs on the day of the survey. The most common needs expressed were help to increase testing capability, more public education, more personal protective equipment, increased personnel, and assistance with contract tracing. Conclusions. There is an urgent need in Kansas to increase support to county health departments for testing capability, personal protective equipment, increased number of staff, increased help with contact tracing, and especially increase support for public education.

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Training and Incorporating Students in SARS-CoV-2 Case Investigations and Contact Tracing

Public Health Reports ◽

10.1177/0033354920974664 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 003335492097466

Author(s):

Kristen Pogreba Brown ◽

Erika Austhof ◽

Ayeisha M. Rosa Hernández ◽

Caitlyn McFadden ◽

Kylie Boyd ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Call Center ◽

Online Survey ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

Local Health ◽

Health Departments ◽

Local Health Departments ◽

Data Quality Control ◽

Public Health Response ◽

Health Response

Objectives In June 2020, Arizona had the fastest-growing number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide. As part of the growing public health response, the University of Arizona Student Aid for Field Epidemiology Response (SAFER) team was able to modify and increase case investigation efforts to assist local health departments. We outline the recommended logistical and management steps to include students in a public health response of this scope. Methods From April 1 through September 1, 2020, the SAFER team identified key components of a successful student team response: volunteer training, management that allows more senior students to manage newer students, adoption of case-management software, and use of an online survey platform for students to conduct interviews consistently and allow for data quality control and management. Results From April 1 through September 1, 2020, SAFER worked with 3 local health departments to complete 1910 COVID-19 case investigations through a virtual call center. A total of 233 volunteers and 46 hourly student workers and staff members were involved. As of September 2020, students were completing >150 interviews per week, including contact-tracing efforts. Practice Implications Developing relationships between applied public health and academic programs can relieve the burden of low-risk, high-volume case investigations at local and state health departments. Furthermore, by establishing a virtual call center, health sciences faculty and students can volunteer remotely during a pandemic with no additional risk of infection.

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Lightweight NFC Protocol for Privacy Protection in Mobile IoT

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app8122506 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 2506 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kai Fan ◽

Chen Zhang ◽

Kan Yang ◽

Hui Li ◽

Yintang Yang

Keyword(s):

Privacy Protection ◽

Near Field ◽

Security Analysis ◽

Authentication Protocol ◽

Security Threats ◽

Electronic Payments ◽

Clustering Model ◽

Lightweight Authentication ◽

Mobile Authentication ◽

The Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to achieve the interconnection of all devices in our lives. Due to the complex network environment, the IoT with mobile devices often faces many security problems, such as privacy leakages and identity forgery attacks. As a developing technology in mobile IoT, near field communication (NFC) is widely used in electronic payments and identity authentications. The current NFC studies mainly focus on payment technology, but there are a few studies on privacy protection and the lightweight requirements in the mobile IoT authentication protocol. We focus on the lightweight privacy protection authentication technology in mobile IoT. In the paper, we summarize the clustering model in mobile IoT networks and propose a lightweight authentication protocol. A security analysis shows that the protocol can resist many security threats, such as privacy leakages, identity forgeries, and replay attacks. The simulation also shows that the protocol is lightweight, with the utilization of look-up-tables (LUTs) and registers in our protocol being less than 0.5%. Our work can provide a secure and lightweight mobile authentication serve in the NFC-based mobile IoT network such as smart home and office attendance.

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Community Trace: Rapid Establishment of a Volunteer Contact Tracing Program for COVID-19

American Journal of Public Health ◽

10.2105/ajph.2020.305959 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 111 (1) ◽

pp. 54-57

Author(s):

Linda Niccolai ◽

Tyler Shelby ◽

Brian Weeks ◽

Christopher Schenck ◽

Justin Goodwin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Contact Tracing ◽

Technological Innovations ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Local Health ◽

Health Departments ◽

New Haven ◽

Local Health Departments ◽

The Core ◽

State And Local ◽

Public Health Strategies

Contact tracing was one of the core public health strategies implemented during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this essay, we describe the rapid establishment of a volunteer contact tracing program in New Haven, Connecticut. We describe successes of the program and challenges that were faced. Going forward, contact tracing efforts can best be supported by increased funding to state and local health departments for a stable workforce and use of evidence-based technological innovations.

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Performance comparison between vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser and quantum-well modulator for short-distance optical links

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters ◽

10.1109/lpt.2005.863986 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 520-522

Author(s):

Hoyeol Cho ◽

P. Kapur ◽

K.C. Saraswat

Keyword(s):

Quantum Well ◽

Short Distance ◽

Performance Comparison ◽

Cavity Surface ◽

Optical Links ◽

Vertical Cavity Surface ◽

Surface Emitting Laser ◽

Vertical Cavity

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Financial Incentives for Downloading COVID–19 Digital Contact Tracing Apps

10.31235/osf.io/9vp7x ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jemima A. Frimpong ◽

Stephane Helleringer

Keyword(s):

Discrete Choice ◽

Financial Incentives ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Contact Tracing ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Health Departments ◽

Financial Cost ◽

Us States ◽

The World ◽

Access Data

Contact tracing is a key approach for controlling the COVID–19 pandemic. Traditional tracing methods might however miss a number of contacts between infected and susceptible persons. Digital contact tracing apps have been developed to assist health departments in notifying individuals of recent exposures to SARS-CoV-2. These apps are used in several countries throughout the world, and some US states have either launched or are planning to launch such apps. The potential effects of digital contact tracing apps depend however on their widespread adoption. Most investigations of the determinants of adoption among potential users have focused on issues related to privacy features (e.g., who can access data, whether location is recorded) and the accuracy of the app in notifying users of exposures to SARS-CoV-2 (e.g., false notifications). In this paper, we investigate whether financial incentives might help further accelerate the adoption of digital contact tracing apps. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with an online sample of 394 US residents aged 18–69 years old. We asked participants to make a series of choices between two hypothetical versions of a digital contact tracing app characterized by several randomly selected attributes, including varying levels of financial cost or incentives to download. In this experiment, financial incentives were more than twice as important in the decision-making process about DCT app downloads than privacy and accuracy. In order to accelerate adoption, US States planning to launch digital contact tracing apps should consider offering financial incentives for download to potential users.

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