An Efficient ECC-Based Authentication Protocol for Secure RFID Healthcare Applications

As Internet and Communication Technologies (ICT) evolve, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has become essential in healthcare for efficiently tracking and managing tagged medical devices. While RFID tags are extensively used on various healthcare assets, they are exposed to serious security and privacy risks, such as eavesdropping, data tampering, and interception, which threaten the confidentiality of healthcare professionals and patients. Despite the development of multiple lightweight RFID authentication schemes, many still suffer from vulnerabilities like replay, impersonation, and de-synchronization attacks. To address these limitations, we present a robust and efficient RFID authentication scheme designed specifically for IoT-enabled healthcare applications. By integrating Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), our scheme delivers strong security with a low computational footprint, ensuring resilience against all evaluated attack types. Comprehensive security and performance testing demonstrate that our protocol offers an effective balance of security and efficiency, making it an ideal and secure choice for real-time healthcare environments.