A digital envelope approach using attribute-based encryption for secure data exchange in IoT scenarios

The inclusion of the Big Data paradigm in our everyday life is giving rise to different IoT scenarios in which there is a continuous sensitive data sharing (e.g., remote healthcare or domestic automation). For such scenarios, the protection of such data is a key challenge to achieve the acceptance, by the end users, of new services and systems oriented to these scenarios. In order to address this issue, this work presents a novel approach combining the efficiency of symmetric cryptography and the flexibility and fine granularity of attribute-based cryptography, with the aim of carrying out secure information exchanges among different entities that make up this new IoT context.