Fine-grained Database Field Search Using Attribute-Based Encryption for E-Healthcare Clouds

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Cloud Computing Security
• Cryptography

Background:

• E-healthcare systems improve user access and service delivery.
• Securing electronic health records (EHRs) in cloud environments is crucial.
• Outsourcing EHRs for cost savings necessitates robust data protection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel framework for fine-grained access control of EHRs stored in semi-trusted cloud servers.
• To enhance the security and privacy of patient data without compromising search functionality.
• To enable controlled searching across different database fields based on user privileges.

Main Methods:

• Leveraging ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) to encrypt hospital databases containing EHRs.
• Storing encrypted tables with patient identity as the primary key.
• Developing a framework that supports diverse user privileges for searching specific database fields.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework enables fine-grained access control for EHRs.
• It allows authorized users to search specific fields within encrypted databases.
• The scheme was evaluated using datasets from the University of California, Irvine, demonstrating its utility.

Conclusions:

• The novel framework effectively controls access to outsourced EHRs in semi-trusted clouds.
• CP-ABE is a viable technique for securing sensitive health data while maintaining searchability.
• This approach enhances EHR security by focusing on controlled field-level searches.