Security Aspects of Short-Range Wireless Communication – Risk Analysis for the Healthcare Application

Short-range wireless communication applications have become common nowadays. Healthcare systems based on them hold a remarkable promise for the costly treatment of chronic diseases. Healthcare applications utilize various wireless communication technologies in order to achieve a good connectivity, which is essential in ubiquitous computing. Weak security in wireless networks may ruin the security of the whole application, and even cause lifethreatening conditions in healthcare. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand risks, threats, possible vulnerabilities and security assumptions made in these technologies. In this paper, we study Bluetooth, ZigBee, NFC, and Wi-Fi from the security point of view in ubiquitous health applications. In the study, we emphasize security aspects starting from the physical communication layer, yet take the needed holistic view to security effectiveness considerations via application of a Risk Analysis process.