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Abstract Aim To develop and test a mobile application that supports the disease self‐management of adolescents with type 1 diabetes during their transition to early adulthood. Design A sequential mixed‐methods design was employed. Methods The application content was designed according to previously identified care needs and expectations, followed by application development on the Android operating system. From the outpatient clinic of the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism at a medical centre in northern Taiwan, 35 individuals aged between 16–25 years participated in application testing. Results The overall median score of the QUIS was 4–5, most of the 25% quartile was 4–5, and all of the 75% quartile was 5, indicating adequate user interaction satisfaction.

6G technology is now attracting many scientific researchers due to its prominent features including high mobility, high data rate, high operating frequency, and ultra-low end-to-end delay. Compared to the 5G, 6G has certain advantages that can transform smart healthcare to a new advanced intelligent healthcare system, where multiple issues and concerns of the services (e.g., slow ambulance response) are effectively resolved. In such a communication system, patients and service providers communicate with each other via an open internet channel. Since the healthcare data is important and very sensitive, security and privacy in the healthcare network become prominent. In this paper, we introduce a 6G-aided intelligent healthcare environment. Our work also proposes a solution called Centerless User-Controlled Single Sign-On (CL-UCSSO) for achieving a convenient and cost-saving communication in a multi-server system constructed. A three-factor mechanism (combining smart card, password and biometrics) and time bound property are integrated to design the protocol with fast authentication that allows patients and providers to efficiently establish secure communications. Security proof of the proposed protocol is provided using well-known verification tools including RoR model, AVISPA simulation and BAN logic. Results of performance comparisons on various aspects show that our work provides more functionalities and incurs less cost compared with the related works.

Fifth generation (5G) mobile technology enables a new kind of network that provides high peak data rates, ultra-low latency communication and high user density. Electronic healthcare (e-health) allows the data to be stored and shared in a highly efficient and flexible manner. Group e-health services help in improving long-term results of the treatments due to its collaborative characteristic. The services including real-time remote patient monitoring and transmission of large health data files can be facilitated by e-health systems enabled with the 5G network. Since the communication channel is open, security and privacy in the system should be taken into account. Our work proposes a key distribution scheme for group healthcare services in 5G network environments. We construct various healthcare domains and apply the proposed scheme to the group services. The paper also introduces Single Sign-On (SSO), a cost-efficient solution, for multi-server architecture of the constructed system. Security and privacy of the scheme are enforced by a three-factor authentication mechanism (integrating smart card, password and biometrics) and strong user anonymity property. We provide security proof of the proposed scheme using various well-known tools including RoR model, BAN logic and AVISPA simulation. Results of various performance comparisons indicate that our scheme provides most functions and bears rational costs, compared with its related works.

Privacy concerns are a key predictor of information sharing, yet some critical issues remain unclear. Based on social capital theory, this study argues that the relationship between privacy concerns and information sharing is a U-shaped curve. Users with privacy concerns would not share their private information; however, such users would eventually share their information as long as they trust the website and its members. Furthermore, this study provides a contingency perspective, suggesting that the curvilinear relationship between privacy concerns and information sharing varies with the system evaluation perception and personal motivation levels. The results show that at a high level of system evaluation, the relationship between privacy concerns squared and information sharing is non-significant. In contrast, at a low level of system evaluation, there is a U-shaped relationship between privacy concerns and information sharing. Regarding motivation, the results were congruent with our expectations.

Edge computing has played an important role in enabling 5G technology which supports a great number of connected narrow-band IoT devices. In an edge computing architecture enabled with global mobile network, edge or IoT devices are wirelessly connected to the edge of the network. Data acquisition and processing will be handled at or close to the edge of the network in a distributed way. Since edge computing is a heterogeneous distributed interactive system with multiple domains and entities, it might suffer from potential attacks and threats. To provide a trusted edge computing, there must have a robust scheme that allows all participants to mutually authenticate in a secure and privacy-preserved way. With the rapid development of IoT technologies, mobile networks and edge computing architecture, single server has been unable to meet the needs of users. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserved end-to-end password-based authenticated key exchange protocol for multi-server architecture in edge computing networks. Our protocol allows an end user to use an easy-to-remember password to login to the server, then through foreign agent compute a shared key with another end user for specific use of services. The proposed protocol provides strong user anonymity during communication process. Besides, the proposed protocol is proved to be secure using BAN logic and AVISPA tool. Furthermore, performance analysis shows that the proposed protocol gains stronger security and better computational efficiency. Providing lightweight computation with short key size of ECC, our work is a solution to lower latency and improve efficiency in edge computing networks.

Electronic healthcare (e-health) has gained more and more research attention in recent years, due to its flexibility and convenience. E-health is efficiently enabled by telecare medicine information system (TMIS). TMIS provides seamless transfer and timely sharing of medical information for specific healthcare services. Since communications in TMIS are carried out through unreliable channels, data security and user privacy concerns become prominent. With traditional single-server architecture, users must store massive credentials, which causes inefficient communication and significant overhead. Moreover, user credentials in previously proposed schemes are stored at server side, suffering potential risks. Our work proposes a three-factor user-controlled single sign-on (UCSSO) with fast authentication and privacy protection for TMIS. The contributions of this paper are as follows. Our work integrates three factors including password, smart card and biometrics in authentication procedure, for providing a high-security and privacy-preserved communication. We introduce single sign-on solution that allows users to log in to multiple servers using a single password. User-controlled mechanism is proposed to address insider attacks and the risk that registration center may be compromised. The proposed scheme is designed with fast authentication mechanism that helps to efficiently establishes new session key. Our work is proved secure using BAN logic, ROR model, and AVISPA toolset. The results of performance comparison show that our scheme provides more security properties and bears the least overhead, compared with competitive schemes.

Healthcare is now an important part of daily life because of rising consciousness of health management. Medical professionals can know users’ health condition if they are able to access information immediately. Telemedicine systems, which provides long distance medical communication and services, is a multi-functional remote medical service that can help patients in bed in long-distance communication environments. As telemedicine systems work in public networks, privacy preservation issue of sensitive and private transmitted information is important. One of the means of proving a user’s identity are user-controlled single sign-on (UCSSO) authentication scheme, which can establish a secure communication channel using authenticated session keys between the users and servers of telemedicine systems, without threats of eavesdropping, impersonation, etc., and allow patients access to multiple telemedicine services with a pair of identity and password. In this paper, we proposed a smartcard-based user-controlled single sign-on (SC-UCSSO) for telemedicine systems that not only remains above merits but achieves privacy preservation and enhances security and performance compared to previous schemes that were proved with BAN logic and automated validation of internet security protocols and applications (AVISPA).

5G networks have an efficient effect in energy consumption and provide a quality experience to many communication devices. Device-to-device communication is one of the key technologies of 5G networks. Internet of Things (IoT) applying 5G infrastructure changes the application scenario in many fields especially real-time communication between machines, data, and people. The 5G network has expanded rapidly around the world including in healthcare. Telemedicine provides long-distance medical communication and services. Patient can get help with ambulatory care or other medical services in remote areas. 5G and IoT will become important parts of next generation smart medical healthcare. Telemedicine is a technology of electronic message and telecommunication related to healthcare, which is implemented in public networks. Privacy issue of transmitted information in telemedicine is important because the information is sensitive and private. In this paper, 5G-based federated anonymous identity management for medical privacy protection is proposed, and it can provide a secure way to protect medical privacy. There are some properties below. (i) The proposed scheme provides federated identity management which can manage identity of devices in a hierarchical structure efficiently. (ii) Identity authentication will be achieved by mutual authentication. (iii) The proposed scheme provides session key to secure transmitted data which is related to privacy of patients. (iv) The proposed scheme provides anonymous identities for devices in order to reduce the possibility of leaking transmitted medical data and real information of device and its owner. (v) If one of devices transmit abnormal data, proposed scheme provides traceability for servers of medical institute. (vi) Proposed scheme provides signature for non-repudiation.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become prevalent, a massive number of logs produced by IoT devices are transmitted and processed every day. The logs should contain important contents and private information. Moreover, these logs may be used as evidences for forensic investigations when cyber security incidents occur. However, evidence legality and internal security issues in existing works were not properly addressed. This paper proposes an autonomous log storage management protocol with blockchain mechanism and access control for the IoT. Autonomous model allows sensors to encrypt their logs before sending it to gateway and server, so that the logs are not revealed to the public during communication process. Along with blockchain, we introduce the concept “signature chain”. The integration of blockchain and signature chain provides efficient management functions with valuable security properties for the logs, including robust identity verification, data integrity, non-repudiation, data tamper resistance, and the legality. Our work also employs attribute-based encryption to achieve fine-grained access control and data confidentiality. The results of security analysis using AVSIPA toolset, GNY logic and semantic proof indicate that the proposed protocol meets various security requirements. Providing good performance with elliptic curve small key size, short BLS signature, efficient signcryption method, and single sign-on solution, our work is suitable for the IoT.

The fifth generation (5G) mobile network delivers high peak data rates with ultra-low latency and massive network capacity. Wireless sensor network (WSN) in Internet of Thing (IoT) architecture is of prominent use in 5G-enabled applications. The electronic healthcare (e-health) system has gained a lot of research attention since it allows e-health users to store and share data in a convenient way. By the support of 5G technology, healthcare data produced by sensor nodes are transited in the e-health system with high efficiency and reliability. It helps in reducing the treatment cost, providing efficient services, better analysis reports, and faster access to treatment. However, security and privacy issues become big concerns when the number of sensors and mobile devices is increasing. Moreover, existing single-server architecture requires to store a massive number of identities and passwords, which causes a significant database cost. In this paper, we propose a three-factor fast authentication scheme with time bound and user anonymity for multi-server e-health systems in 5G-based wireless sensor networks. In our work, the three-factor authentication scheme integrating biometrics, password, and smart card ensures a high-security sensor-enabled environment for communicating parties. User anonymity is preserved during communication process. Besides, time bound authentication can be applied to various healthcare scenarios to enhance security. The proposed protocol includes fast authentication, which can provide a fast communication for participating parties. Our protocol is also designed with multi-server architecture to simplify network load and significantly save database cost. Furthermore, security proof and performance analysis results show that our proposed protocol can resist various attacks and bear a rational communication cost.

This study develops a contingent mediation model to investigate whether user perception enhances customer stickiness through emotional connection and further assess such mediating effect varies with different adaptivity. A moderated mediation approach is adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings reveal the mediating role of emotional connection on the link between perceived usefulness and customer stickiness, but not moderated by adaptivity. On the other hand, the results showed that the relationship between perceived ease of use and customer stickiness is not mediated by emotional connection; however, after considering the moderating effect, our results show that moderated mediation exists.

This study aims to assess the acceptability of a fitness testing platform (iFit) for installation in an assisted living community with the aim of promoting fitness and slowing the onset of frailty. The iFit platform develops a means of testing Bureau of Health Promotion mandated health assessment items for the elderly (including flexibility tests, grip strength tests, balance tests, and reaction time tests) and integrates wireless remote sensors in a game-like environment to capture and store subject response data, thus providing individuals in elderly care contexts with a greater awareness of their own physical condition. In this study, we specifically evaluated the users' intention of using the iFit using a technology acceptance model (TAM). A total of 101 elderly subjects (27 males and 74 females) were recruited. A survey was conducted to measure technology acceptance, to verify that the platform could be used as intended to promote fitness among the elderly. Results indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and usage attitude positively impact behavioral intention to use the platform. The iFit platform can offer user-friendly solutions for a community-based fitness care and monitoring of elderly subjects. In summary, iFit was determined by three key drivers and discussed as follows: risk factors among the frail elderly, mechanism for slowing the advance frailty, and technology acceptance and support for promoting physical fitness.