Addressing Security and Privacy Concerns for Drones in Networks beyond 5G

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drone Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 5795

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Interests: IoT; 5G; blockchain; machine learning; UAVs; wireless communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, College of Engineering, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Interests: cryptography; Internet of Things; authentication; authenticated encryption; blockchains; 6G communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Networks beyond 5G (B5G) include the automation and intelligence of drones, as well as strategies for capacity expansion to address the massive connectivity problems and provide ultra-high throughput and low latency. On the other hand, security and privacy threats have always been a concern with drones. This is due to the absence of security and privacy considerations in the drone’s design, including unsecured wireless channels and an inadequate computation capability to execute advanced cryptographic algorithms. Due to the large real-time applications of drones and the omnipresence of wireless connectivity in B5G networks, advanced security measures are necessary to prevent unauthorized access to critical data. Similarly, while designing security protocols for drones in B5G networks, high scalability, device diversity, and high mobility should be considered. As B5G networks will integrate AI and edge AI-based capabilities for drones, it is also essential to include security measures against AI-related attacks. Keeping in mind the above security and privacy considerations, this Special Issue debates the security and privacy threats that could prevent drones from being used in various B5G applications, as well as the security requirements needed. Furthermore, this Special Issue also aims to propose solutions based on lightweight security methods, including the use of blockchain technology and federated learning.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Security and privacy issues for drones in B5G;
  • Blockchain-based security protocols for drones in B5G;
  • Novel frameworks and algorithms based on existing and upcoming technologies to enhance security for drones in B5G;
  • Lightweight security solutions for drones in B5G;
  • Security measures against AI-related attacks on drones in B5G;
  • Federated learning-based security solutions for drones in B5G.

Dr. Muhammad Asghar Khan
Prof. Dr. Pascal Lorenz
Dr. Syed Agha Hassnain Mohsan
Dr. Shehzad Ashraf Chaudhry
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • B5G
  • AI
  • federated learning
  • blockchain
  • security
  • drones

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 1852 KiB  
Article
Secure Blockchain-Enabled Authentication Key Management Framework with Big Data Analytics for Drones in Networks Beyond 5G Applications
by Amit Kumar Mishra, Mohammad Wazid, Devesh Pratap Singh, Ashok Kumar Das, Jaskaran Singh and Athanasios V. Vasilakos
Drones 2023, 7(8), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7080508 - 2 Aug 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1914
Abstract
One of the most significant recent advances in technology is the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), i.e., drones. They have widened the scope of possible applications and provided a platform for a wide range of creative responses to a variety of challenges. [...] Read more.
One of the most significant recent advances in technology is the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), i.e., drones. They have widened the scope of possible applications and provided a platform for a wide range of creative responses to a variety of challenges. The Internet of Drones (IoD) is a relatively new concept that has arisen as a consequence of the combination of drones and the Internet. The fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks (i.e., drones in networks beyond 5G) are promising solutions for achieving safe drone operations and applications. They may have many applications, like surveillance or urban areas, security, surveillance, retaliation, delivering items, smart farming, film production, capturing nature videos, and many more. Due to the fact that it is susceptible to a wide variety of cyber-attacks, there are certain concerns regarding the privacy and security of IoD communications. In this paper, a secure blockchain-enabled authentication key management framework with the big data analytics feature for drones in networks beyond 5G applications is proposed (in short, SBBDA-IoD). The security of SBBDA-IoD against multiple attacks is demonstrated through a detailed security analysis. The Scyther tool is used to perform a formal security verification test on the SBBDA-IoD’s security, confirming the system’s resistance to various potential attacks. A detailed comparative analysis has identified that SBBDA-IoD outperforms the other schemes by a significant margin. Finally, a real-world implementation of SBBDA-IoD is shown to evaluate its effect on several measures of performance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 1606 KiB  
Article
A Resource-Friendly Certificateless Proxy Signcryption Scheme for Drones in Networks beyond 5G
by Muhammad Asghar Khan, Hosam Alhakami, Insaf Ullah, Wajdi Alhakami, Syed Agha Hassnain Mohsan, Usman Tariq and Nisreen Innab
Drones 2023, 7(5), 321; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7050321 - 16 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1848
Abstract
Security and privacy issues were long a subject of concern with drones from the past few years. This is due to the lack of security and privacy considerations in the design of the drone, which includes unsecured wireless channels and insufficient computing capability [...] Read more.
Security and privacy issues were long a subject of concern with drones from the past few years. This is due to the lack of security and privacy considerations in the design of the drone, which includes unsecured wireless channels and insufficient computing capability to perform complex cryptographic algorithms. Owing to the extensive real-time applications of drones and the ubiquitous wireless connection of beyond 5G (B5G) networks, efficient security measures are required to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. In this article, we proposed a resource-friendly proxy signcryption scheme in certificateless settings. The proposed scheme was based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which has a reduced key size, i.e., 160 bits, and is, therefore, suitable for drones. Using the random oracle model (ROM), the security analysis of the proposed scheme was performed and shown to be secure against well-known attacks. The performance analysis of the proposed scheme was also compared to relevant existing schemes in terms of computation and communication costs. The findings validate the practicability of the proposed scheme. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop