Pseudonym Certificate Selection for Connected Vehicle Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current connected vehicle communication systems face challenges in maintaining privacy and security, particularly in efficiently revoking misbehaving vehicles while managing a large number of pseudonym certificates, which can lead to resource-intensive generation, storage, and communication requirements, as well as limitations in pseudonym change strategies that result in certificate reuse.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that prioritize pseudonym certificates based on relative achievable anonymity in geographical regions, partitioning them into privacy risk groups, and selecting the appropriate certificate for use to protect vehicle activity against eavesdroppers, involving tracking and storing vehicle location data, computing relative anonymity, and authenticating safety messages with the selected pseudonym certificate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If multiple pseudonym certificates are issued to each vehicle to ensure privacy, then privacy protection is improved, but resource consumption for generation, storage, and communication increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-generates a pool of pseudonym certificates for each vehicle before they are needed. This preliminary action allows vehicles to have ready-to-use pseudonyms without generating them on-demand, reducing computational resource consumption during operation while maintaining privacy through multiple pre-existing pseudonyms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements location-based pseudonym selection where different pseudonym certificates are chosen based on the vehicle's geographical location. This local quality approach ensures that pseudonyms are context-appropriate, improving privacy in specific regions while optimizing resource usage by not maintaining all possible pseudonyms active simultaneously everywhere.
2Loss of information
If pseudonym certificates are frequently changed to protect privacy, then privacy protection is improved, but system complexity and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically selects pseudonym certificates from a pool based on current location and contextual factors rather than using static or strictly periodic changes. This dynamic approach adapts pseudonym usage to actual privacy needs in different contexts, reducing unnecessary changes while maintaining protection where needed, thereby lowering system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Vehicles autonomously manage their own pseudonym selection and rotation based on local decisions regarding location and privacy requirements. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for centralized coordination of pseudonym changes, reducing communication overhead and system complexity while maintaining effective privacy protection.
3Reliability
If a large number of pseudonym certificates are maintained for each vehicle, then privacy against eavesdroppers is improved, but storage and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the pseudonym certificate pool into location-specific groups or subsets. Instead of maintaining one large monolithic pool, pseudonyms are divided into smaller location-based segments, allowing the vehicle to use only the relevant segment for the current location. This segmentation reduces active storage and processing requirements while maintaining overall privacy security through the aggregate pool size.
4Productivity
If pseudonym certificates are reused to reduce resource consumption, then resource efficiency is improved, but privacy protection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters such as location, time, and contextual factors to determine pseudonym selection and reuse policies. By varying these parameters, the system intelligently decides when certificate reuse is acceptable and when fresh pseudonyms should be used, optimizing the balance between resource efficiency and privacy protection through parameter-based decision-making rather than rigid rules.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention is applicable for use in conjunction with a system for connected vehicle communications in which each vehicle in the system is issued a limited number of unique pseudonym certificates that are used by the vehicle to establish trust in messages sent by the vehicle by signing each message with a pseudonym certificate. A method is set forth for selecting a pseudonym certificate for use, from among the vehicle's pseudonym certificates, so as to protect the privacy of the vehicle's activity against attacks by eavesdroppers, including the steps of: tracking and storing vehicle location data; computing, from inputs that include the vehicle location data, the vehicle's relative achievable anonymity in particular geographical regions; prioritizing the pseudonym certificates; and selecting a pseudonym certificate for use from among the pseudonym certificates having a priority that is determined by the relative achievable anonymity for the geographical region in which the certificate is to be used. The method includes authenticating a safety message using the selected pseudonym certificate, and transmitting the authenticated message.