Security and Privacy of Wearable Wireless Sensors in Healthcare: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Wearable Wireless Sensor Network (WWSN) devices are widely used in healthcare to monitor health data. However, when WWSN users transmit their data to healthcare professionals or third parties over wireless connections, they face privacy and security vulnerabilities. This paper aims to identify the unsolved privacy and security challenges in wearable sensor devices in healthcare, especially the aspects overlooked by previous research. The main research question is: What are the unsolved privacy and security challenges in wearable sensor devices in healthcare, and what are their implications for users and healthcare professionals? This systematic review employs specific keywords to search for relevant publications on bibliographic databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, and Web of Science. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) charts helped in screening and summarising the selected papers. The results highlight the critical areas that can make WWSNs vulnerable to security attacks. The findings examine the security and privacy issues of wearable sensor devices in cloud computing, fog computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the like. Many studies examine IoT due to its privacy and security challenges, especially regarding handling extensive data, using public channels, deploying advanced technologies, managing sharing policies alongside the growing number of wireless devices, and protecting data from hackers. These challenges seriously threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of health data transmitted by WWSN users to healthcare professionals or third parties in cloud-based environments and IoT and are exacerbated by limited resources. The significant findings thereby focus on unresolved areas in IoT. This paper aims to safeguard against cyber-attacks on healthcare and increase users' adoption rate of WWSN devices.