Recently, the proposed Cybertwin-driven 6G network architecture has attracted attentions from academia, which can support the communication anchor, security agent and other functions for physical devices. Especially, Cybertwin can provide promising Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications in future. However, security and privacy of Cybertwin still face various threats and challenges, which may impact future deployments for Cybertwin-driven 6G V2X. In this paper, we first introduce the architecture and promising applications of Cybertwin-driven 6G V2X. Then, we analyze essential data security and privacy preservation requirements for Cybertwin-driven 6G V2X. Particularly, we present the security reference architecture of Cybertwin-driven 6G V2X. As a case study, we investigate the migration of Cybertwin caused by vehicle mobility, and propose a handover authentication scheme to create new Cybertwin between vehicle and edge server based on proxy ring signature technique. Finally, we discuss several open research directions for achieving more secure Cybertwin-driven 6G V2X.

In this paper, we propose a secure incentive scheme to achieve fair and reliable cooperative (SIRC) downloading in highway vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). SIRC can stimulate vehicle users to help download-and-forward packets for each other and consists of cooperative downloading and forwarding phase. During the cooperative downloading phase, SIRC utilizes “virtual checks” associated with the designated verifier signature to ensure fair and secure cooperation. Meanwhile, to minimize the payment risk of the client vehicle, partial prepayment strategy is adopted, i.e., the vehicles involved in downloading packets can only obtain part of the check before the client vehicle confirms the packet reception. During the cooperative forwarding phase, a profit-sharing model associated with an aggregating Camenisch-Lysyanskaya (CL) signature can stimulate cooperation and reduce the authentication overhead. In addition, we develop a reputation system to encourage cooperation and punish malicious vehicles. The aggregating CL signature and the symmetric cryptosystem are applied to resist various attacks, including injection/removing attack, free riding attack, submission refusal attack, and denial of service attacks. Extensive simulation results are given to show that the proposed SIRC can achieve a high download success rate and low average download delay with moderate cryptographic computation and communication overhead.

As a means to improve road safety and efficiency and to provide high-performance data transmission service for vehicular networks, group-based vehicular communications (e.g., platoon) has attracted a lot of attention from both academia and industry. In this article, we introduce group-based vehicular communication and address two major security challenges: 1) securely and dynamically setting up and managing the group for a decentralized network, which guarantees the confidentiality and integrity of information being exchanged among vehicles; and 2) secure group access and mobility management for the centralized network, which enables group members to securely and efficiently access the Internet, especially while moving across heterogeneous networks. We propose an integrated network architecture for secure group communication, taking advantage of the software-defined network (SDN) technology in fifth generation (5G) mobile networks.

The high-precision maps can provide additional information on roads and conditions, which plays an important role in autonomous vehicles (AVs) navigation. Compared with the existing map update methods, the real-time map updates based on crowdsensing has lower cost and higher accuracy. However, in the process of map update, the map service platform cannot recruit enough vehicle users to obtain sensing data due to lack of incentive mechanism. Therefore, how to motivate more vehicle users to provide high-quality sensing data is the key for real-time map updates. In this paper, we propose a secure and privacy-preserving incentive scheme for reliable real-time map updates, named SPIR. Specifically, under the condition of limited service platform budget and limited vehicle user’s ability, an effective incentive mechanism based on reverse auction is presented, which can solve two core problems: i.e., payment control for map service platform and completion quality for vehicle users. Meanwhile, a credit management and payment system based on blockchain technique is designed. In addition, the partially blind signature technique is applied to guarantee the security of incentive mechanism and protect the privacy of vehicle users. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that the proposed SPIR achieves near optimal benefits, which can provide the fair reward for vehicle users and reasonable budget for the map service platform. In the real time map update services, SPIR can guarantee the computational efficiency and data reliability.