<scp>EKMRS</scp> : Elliptic Key Modified Rivest Shamir Adleman Scheme for Secure Data Sharing and Authentication in Smart City Applications

ABSTRACT In the modern era, blockchain technology integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a powerful segment for secured and translucent smart city applications. Initially, authentication forms the stepping stone for defense in different types of information systems; earlier approaches used in the context of single‐side centralization were found faint and uncertain, with the enlarged single‐point failure owing to external vulnerabilities. With the incorporation of an advanced authentication scheme, this research proposes the Elliptic Key‐modified Rivest Shamir Adleman (EKMRS) scheme to overcome the tackles in existing techniques, thereby improving the security of applications. Moreover, the risks involved in identity fraud can be effectively minimized by blockchain technology that assures that public keys are verified using a decentralized consensus technique and stored securely. This combination not only secures communication channels but also includes a decentralized ledger for identity verification with tamper‐proof evidence. The EKMRS utilizes the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm that enhances the scalability enlargement and robust solution for a smart city environment, ensuring strong authentication. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the EKMRS scheme by offering significant improvements in terms of metrics, achieving 0.029 ms for decryption time, an encryption time of 0.39 ms, and an information loss of 0.13 with the students mark sheet dataset over the other recognized approaches.