Hybrid pseudonym change strategy for location privacy in VANET: protecting location privacy in VANET. (16th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Benarous, Leila; Kadri, Benamar
• Is Part Of: International journal of information privacy, security and integrity. Volume 4:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 153
• Page End: 169
• Publication Date: 2020-11-16
• Subjects: privacy -- pseudonym -- anonymity -- unlinkability -- attacker -- simulation; Computer security -- Periodicals; Computer networks -- Access control -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Security measures -- Periodicals; Data protection -- Periodicals; Privacy, Right of -- Periodicals; 005.805
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-8496

Abstract

In vehicular ad hoc networks, the vehicles are connected to exchange information to ensure the safety of users. However, its application and real-world deployment are condemned by the privacy risks which may violate the user's confidentiality. The nature of these networks prioritises the safety applications and facilitates the eavesdropping of the attacker. The vehicle periodically broadcasts beacons containing its spatiotemporal information. Moreover, these beacons need to be signed using its temporal public key. Since, none of the above facts can be eliminated, a solution that keeps them yet achieves the location privacy is needed. In this paper, we intend to preserve it by using a robust pseudonym change strategy. The proposed method aims to confuse the attacker when the pseudonym is updated. It is hybrid as it takes the advantage of hiding within the crowd when the update happens in dense roads, and if the vehicle is alone, it executes an obfuscation method to thwart linkability. The proposal is simulated using NS2 against global passive attacker that executes semantic and syntactic linking attacks. The simulation showed high privacy preservation level and strong resiliency to the above-mentioned attacks. A comparative study was added to further illustrate the robustness of our proposal.