Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-3951

Biosketch

Aarthi S is a research-focused scholar specializing in Cryptography, Biometric Authentication, and Post-Quantum Cybersecurity, currently serving as a Research Assistant at SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in Computer Science, where her dissertation, now submitted, focuses on the “Design & Development of efficient biometric authentication and key-agreement schemes for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs)”.

Her research spans lightweight security protocols, cancelable biometrics, homomorphic encryption, post-quantum cryptography, and privacy-preserving mechanisms for IoT and healthcare applications. She has published several SCI/SCIE and Scopus-indexed research papers, including works on quantum-proof biometric authentication using binary lattices, signcryption-based mutual authentication for IoMT, medical image encryption, and privacy-preserving protocols in vehicular and e-payment systems. She also holds two published patents related to cancelable template generation using HECC-256 and dynamic Chebyshev maps.

Aarthi is skilled in Python, C, C++, machine learning, Qiskit, SPAN-AVISPA, blockchain frameworks, and modern cryptographic tools. She has also demonstrated teaching excellence, assisting in courses such as C Programming, C++, AI, and Python, and consistently receiving high faculty ratings. Her long-term vision is to advance secure, scalable, and quantum-resilient authentication frameworks for next-generation connected systems.

Date of Award

15-7-2025

Document Type

Thesis

School

School of Computing

Programme

Ph.D.-Doctoral of Philosophy

First Advisor

Dr.K.Geetha

Keywords

Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol, Wireless Body Area Networks, Cancelable Biometric Template Protection scheme, Quantum-Proof Cryptography, Biometric authentication

Abstract

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) play a vital role in continuous health monitoring, where sensitive biometric and physiological data must be protected from privacy breaches and emerging quantum-based threats. Conventional security mechanisms are often inadequate due to resource constraints, scalability issues, and vulnerability to advanced attacks. To address these challenges, this research proposes a lightweight, scalable, and future-proof security framework tailored for WBAN applications, focusing on secure communication, privacy preservation, and quantum resilience.

An anonymous Certificate-Based Signcryption–Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement (CBS-MAKE) protocol is introduced to secure extra-body communications while ensuring patient anonymity. The protocol integrates Elliptic Curve Cryptography with anonymous certificates derived from the Quadratic Residuosity Problem to conceal user identities. Formal verification using BAN-Logic and validation through SPAN-AVISPA confirm the protocol’s resistance to known security attacks. The CBS-MAKE protocol supports both single and multi-user scenarios (PDA→AP and PDAi→AP), enabling scalable and secure group communication in WBAN environments.

The security of bio-hashed biometric templates within the CBS-MAKE framework is critically examined, revealing vulnerabilities to similarity and dictionary attacks when optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization and Covariance Matrix Adaptation–Evolution Strategy. These attacks exploit the similarity-preserving nature of biohashing, achieving only 64% resistance at a threshold of 0.8. To overcome these limitations, a Cancelable Biometric Template protection scheme based on Dynamic Degree-adjusted Chebyshev (D2CAP) chaotic maps is proposed, offering enhanced randomness and statistical robustness.

The D2CAP-based template protection scheme demonstrates superior statistical performance compared to standard Chebyshev maps, satisfying all NIST 800-22 randomness requirements. Extensive evaluation across multiple biometric modalities—including iris, fingerprint, palm vein, ear, face images, and real-time video sequences—shows strong security characteristics, with entropy above 7.95%, NPCR exceeding 99.5%, UACI around 33%, and a low Equal Error Rate of approximately 0.12±0.05%. While effective against classical cryptographic and similarity attacks, the scheme remains susceptible to quantum-enhanced plaintext attacks.

To achieve quantum-resistant biometric security, the framework is extended using binary lattice-based cryptography and Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography (HECC). Two quantum-secure schemes, AEGIIS and G2CAPS, are developed to reinforce cancelable biometric templates against both classical and quantum adversaries. These methods achieve high recognition accuracy of up to 99.7% while offering improved storage and computational efficiency. Notably, the proposed hyperelliptic curve was standardized by ITU-T Study Group 17 in 2024, reinforcing its credibility as a robust and future-ready cryptographic solution.

Download

Share

COinS