Enhancing Edge Network Security in Fog Computing: A Hybrid Authentication and Encryption Approach

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices has led to the growth of fog computing, which aims to provide efficient data processing and storage at the network edge. However, this expansion has also led to critical security concerns. This paper introduces a proposed hybrid authentication and encryption method designed to secure the edge network within fog computing. Our approach combines a password-based authentication mechanism with the robust Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm to ensure secure communication among IoT devices and fog nodes. Moreover, we introduce a distributed password mechanism for user authentication during the registration process, further bolstering the security of the fog environment. To assess the effectiveness of our proposed approach, we conducted evaluations and comparisons with existing authentication and encryption techniques in previous work. The results demonstrate the superior security capabilities of our method in fortifying the fog computing environment by preserving the time consumed whereas in the original 0.601 and in the proposal 0.611 which consider emerging challenges posed by IoT and fog computing.