Security Issues in Wireless Body Area Network

Advances in wireless communication technologies and sensors have empowered development of Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). The wireless body area network allows the data of a patient’s vital body parameters and movements to be collected by small wearable or implantable sensors. WBAN has shown great potential in improving healthcare quality, and thus has found a wide range of applications from ubiquitous health monitoring and computer assisted rehabilitation to emergency medical response systems. The security and privacy protection of the data collected from a WBAN, either while stored inside the WBAN or during their transmission outside of the WBAN, is a major unsolved concern. WBAN faces with various security issues such as loss of data, authentication and access control. In Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN), security solution is required for data confidentiality, authentication and integrity at low cost. In this paper, we present an overview of body area network and their related issues emphasis in security problem. Finally, we highlight the security attacks in WBAN and the security requirements in WBAN followed by the security risk assessment.