An escrow-free online/offline HIBS scheme for privacy protection of people-centric sensing

Abstract

People-centric sensing (PCS), which collects information closely related to human activity and interactions in societies, is stepping into a flourishing time. Along with its great benefits, PCS poses new security challenges such as data integrity and participant privacy. Hierarchical identity-based signature (HIBS) scheme can efficiently provide high-integrity messaging, secure communication, and privacy protection to PCS. However, key escrow problem and low computation efficiency primarily hinder the adoption of HIBS scheme. In this paper, we propose an escrow-free online/offline HIBS scheme for securing PCS. By utilizing user-selected-secret signing algorithm and splitting the signing phase into online and offline procedures, our scheme solves the key escrow problem and achieves high scheme performance. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.