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By the end of this decade, it is estimated that Internet of Things (IoT) could connect as many as 50 billion devices. Near Field Communication (NFC) is considered as a key enabler of IoT. Many useful applications are supported by NFC, including contactless payment, identification, authentication, file exchange, and eHealthcare, etc. However, securing NFC between mobile devices faces great challenges mainly because of severe resource constraints on NFC devices, NFC systems deployed without security, and sophisticated adversaries.
This project investigates three techniques to secure NFC: (1) energy-efficient and fast key agreement mechanisms by exploiting full-duplex capability of NFC devices; (2) RF signal randomization to provide NFC confidentiality without a pre-shared key; and (3) a proximity verification mechanism defending against relay attacks utilizing magnetic sensing. These techniques are expected to significantly improve the key generation rate and reduce energy consumption compared with the conventional Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol, and achieve high security and usability. These proposed techniques will be evaluated through theoretical analysis, numeric simulation, testbed experiments, and user study, and compared with conventional security mechanisms under different system settings and conditions.
The proposed project will advance research on lightweight, energy-efficient, and usable security mechanisms in mobile networks for IoT applications. The research is applicable to important applications, such as mobile payment and access control. Graduate, undergraduate, minority, and high school students will be actively involved into the proposed research. The newly established Cyber Security Engineering (CYSE) BS program at George Mason University will be enriched through this project. Materials of this project will be made available online in the forms of tutorials, talks, publications, and software toolkits.
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TWC: Small: Secure Near Field Communications between Mobile Devices