SLDS: Secure and location-sensitive data sharing scheme for cloud-assisted Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are engineered systems in which the computation, networking, physical processes and users are integrated seamlessly by the Internet. With the application of CPS technology in transportation, energy, manufacturing and other fields, the way people interact with engineered systems is significantly changed. Despite of plenty of benefits, CPS also suffers from many problems and the most important one is data security. On the one hand, the location of data is a link between the cyber space and the physical world. In some scenarios, the data is only allowed to be used in the desired areas, and thus the mobility of CPS devices introduces the location-related security requirements in data management. On the other hand, note that the monitors and sensor devices keep collecting and exchanging sensitive data all the time. As a result, it is a major security challenge for CPS to safely distribute massive amounts of data to the clients with limited resources. In this paper, we propose a new location verification protocol called Ears, which prevents both shortening and lengthening distance frauds in CPS environments. Besides, we design a secure location-sensitive data sharing (SLDS) scheme based on Ears, in which data access is controlled by identity as well as location and the shared data is re-encrypted after each retrieval. We can prove that the proposed Ears protocol and SLDS scheme can achieve the designed security properties. Furthermore, the experimental results show that our schemes are more efficient for real-world applications.