Norjihan Abdul Ghani, Bintang Annisa Bagustari, Muneer Ahmad, Herman Tolle, Diva Kurnianingtyas
The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing is transforming healthcare by enabling real-time acquisition, processing, and exchange of sensitive patient data close to the data source. However, the distributed nature of IoT-enabled smart healthcare systems exposes them to severe security and privacy risks during health information exchange (HIE). This study proposes an edge-enabled hybrid encryption framework that combines elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), HMAC-SHA256, and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and efficient computation in healthcare communication networks. The proposed model minimizes latency and reduces cloud dependency by executing encryption and verification at the network edge. It provides the first systematic comparison of hybrid encryption configurations for edge-based HIE, evaluating CPU usage, memory consumption, and scalability across varying data volumes. Experimental results demonstrate that the ECC + HMAC-SHA256 + AES configuration achieves high encryption efficiency and strong resistance to attacks while maintaining lightweight processing suitable for edge devices. This approach provides a scalable and secure solution for protecting sensitive health data in next-generation IoT-enabled smart healthcare systems. © 2025 by the authors.
Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia; Faculty of Computer Science, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran No. 10-11, Jawa, 65145, Indonesia; Department of Computer Science, University of Roehampton, London, SW15 5PH, United Kingdom
