Secured and Privacy-Preserving Multi-Authority Access Control System for Cloud-Based Healthcare Data Sharing

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Security
• Cloud Computing

Background:

• Cloud computing facilitates data sharing, often requiring encrypted data outsourcing.
• Access control on encrypted data is crucial for secure sharing, especially in inter-domain applications like healthcare.
• Multi-authority attribute-based encryption (MA-ABE) offers a robust solution for granular access control in complex data-sharing environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose the SP-MAACS scheme for secure and privacy-preserving multi-authority access control in cloud-based healthcare data sharing.
• To accommodate both open-domain (external) and closed-domain (internal) users with flexible data sharing.
• To ensure policy privacy by concealing attribute values while revealing attribute names.

Main Methods:

• Development of the SP-MAACS scheme, a novel multi-authority access control system.
• Integration of attribute-based encryption techniques to manage access rights.
• Consideration of both open and closed user domains within a unified framework.
• Ensuring policy privacy through selective attribute disclosure.

Main Results:

• The SP-MAACS scheme provides secure and privacy-preserving access control for cloud-based healthcare data.
• It supports both open and closed domain users, offering flexibility in data sharing.
• Policy privacy is maintained by hiding attribute values, enhancing user confidentiality.
• Comparative analysis demonstrates superior features including multi-authority support, flexible policies, privacy, and scalability.

Conclusions:

• The SP-MAACS scheme effectively addresses the challenges of secure and private data sharing in cloud environments, particularly for healthcare.
• It offers a scalable and flexible solution with reasonable decryption costs and adaptive security.
• The scheme enhances data security and user privacy through advanced attribute-based encryption techniques.