Exploring the Opportunities, Security Vulnerabilities, and Privacy Risks in Edge-Centric Health Monitoring Systems

Human civilization has always been inventing new technologies that can make its way of living comfortable, efficient, and useful. Healthcare, smart homes, entertainment, transportation, education, and other industries have all adopted the Internet of Things (IoT). In recent years, there have been a lot of inventions in technology that have significantly transformed the healthcare sector. It has enabled more efficient, accurate, and real-time patient monitoring. The exponential growth of IoT wearable devices leads to the requirement to process results in real time and a better way to store data. However, the significant increase in IoT devices and the large amount of data they generate at the network's edge have added extra challenges that conventional cloud architecture with central repository is not able to handle properly. As a consequence, the Internet of Things (IoT) based on Edge Computing (EC) is evolving into a contemporary approach that provides storage and processing of data for near end users. It results in real-time response and the patient’s life could be saved in critical situations. It has opened new avenues for continuous health monitoring, data collection, and analysis through the employment of various wearable devices. This paradigm presents significant privacy and security of data threats in addition to its distinctive characteristics and enhanced quality of service. Because location and health data are sensitive, it is critical to ensure that users have a high degree of security. In this paper, I have tried to conduct a comprehensive investigation into security and privacy issues in the context of Edge based health monitoring system, and explored possible solutions.