Securing Embedded Medical Devices using Dual-Factor Authentication

This work provides an analysis of dual-factor authentication protocol for securing low-power medical devices. The dual-factor protocol incorporates voluntary physical action-based authentication in addition to traditional cryptographic methods for adding an extra layer of security. Along with touch signals, we propose and analyze the use of electromyographic (EMG) signals obtained from hand gestures for the second factor authentication. We demonstrate the feasibility of touch and EMG signals for dual-factor authentication by prototyping the medical device using off-the-shelf components. We also develop energy models for all these protocols, and analyze their overheads compared to traditional single-factor cryptographic authentication.