Efficient secure-channel free public key encryption with keyword search for EMRs in cloud storage

Area of Science:

• Cryptography
• Information Security
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Searchable encryption is vital for privacy-preserving keyword searches on encrypted electronic medical records (EMRs) in cloud storage.
• Efficiency is critical for searchable encryption, especially on resource-constrained client devices like smartphones and tablets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an efficient secure-channel free public key encryption with keyword search (SCF-PEKS) scheme.
• To ensure the proposed SCF-PEKS scheme is secure against chosen keyword/ciphertext and keyword guessing attacks.
• To demonstrate the enhanced efficiency of the proposed SCF-PEKS scheme compared to existing methods.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel secure-channel free public key encryption with keyword search (SCF-PEKS) scheme.
• Security proofs conducted in the standard model.
• Comparative efficiency analysis against existing SCF-PEKS schemes.

Main Results:

• The proposed SCF-PEKS scheme is proven secure in the standard model.
• The scheme demonstrates security against chosen keyword and ciphertext attacks (IND-SCF-CKCA).
• The scheme is also secure against keyword guessing attacks (IND-KGA).
• The proposed scheme exhibits superior efficiency compared to other recent SCF-PEKS schemes.

Conclusions:

• The developed SCF-PEKS scheme provides an efficient and secure solution for privacy-preserving keyword search on EMRs.
• The scheme is suitable for cloud storage environments, particularly for mobile client platforms with limited resources.
• This work advances the field of searchable encryption for sensitive medical data.