Enhancing IoT Healthcare Security: A Lightweight Multi-Layer Cryptographic Approach with AES-256, Grain and HMAC-SHA256

Abstract

IoT Healthcare equipment usually encounters variety of hardware constraints, which can influence the encryption techniques used. Several of these IoT Healthcare gadgets use low-power microcontrollers or System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures with limited computing capacity. The devices sometimes have insufficient RAM and flash memory accessible, which can influence the selection of encryption methods. Cryptographic algorithms that are computationally costly or need frequent memory access can quickly deplete the device's battery. This is where a decent encryption method comes into play, because lightweight symmetric-key ciphers like Grain is typically better suited to IoT devices with limited processing power and memory. This study suggested a solution that uses AES 256, Grain and HMAC SHA256 to encrypt and hash IoT healthcare data at the physical layer. AES-256 is typically the quickest of the three, particularly with hardware acceleration. The Grain is the most lightweight and efficient option for tiny data sets and resource-constrained contexts, but HMAC-SHA-256 strikes a reasonable compromise between performance and security, making it a popular choice for message authentication. The combination of these three components results in a comprehensive encryption solution, with AES-256 ensuring strong confidentiality by encrypting the data. Grain offers an extra layer of encryption, increasing total security, while HMAC-SHA256 provides integrity and authenticity, ensuring that the encrypted data has not been tampered with. Using this combination, the encryption result becomes extremely resistant to a variety of assaults, including brute-force, cryptanalysis, and tampering. The system was created using the Python programming language. The results show that combining AES-256, Grain and HMAC-SHA256 speeds up encryption and decryption while using less power.