INFORMATION SECURITY: A STUDY ON BIOMETRIC SECURITY SOLUTIONS FOR TELECARE MEDICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

This exploratory study provides a means for evaluating and rating Telecare medical information systems in order to provide a more effective security solution. This analysis of existing solutions was conducted via an in-depth study of Telecare security. This is a proposition for current biometric technologies as a new means for secure communication of private information over public channels. Specifically, this research was done in order to provide a means for businesses to evaluate prospective technologies from a 3 dimensional view in order to make am accurate decision on any given biometric security technology. Through identifying key aspects of what makes a security solution the most effective in minimizing risk of a patient’s confidential data being exposed we were then able to create a 3 dimensional rubric to see not only from a business view but also the users such as the patients and doctors that use Telecare medical information systems every day. Finally, we also need to understand the implications of biometric solutions from a technological standpoint

Towards a Cooperative Security System for Mobile-Health Applications

[EN] Mobile Health (m-Health) system architectures are typically based on mobile and wireless communications, and use mobile devices with data exchange supported by Web Services (WS). Although m-Health systems offer mobility as a potential and precious resource they also present several challenged issues and constraints, such as, battery and storage capacity, broadcast constraints, interferences, disconnections, noises, limited bandwidths, and network delays. Furthermore, constant mobility and often-required Internet connectivity also exposes and compromises the privacy and confidentiality of the m-Health system information. This paper proposes a novel data encryption solution for mobile health systems, considering a novel and early-proposed cooperation strategy. This encryption solution, called data encryption for mobile health applications (DE4MHA), tries to guarantee the best confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of m-health systems users data. The paper also presents a performance evaluation study comparing the performance an m-Health application with and without the DE4MHA.This work has been partially supported by National Funding from the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the PEst-OE/EEI/LA0008/2013 Project; by the AAL4ALL (Ambient Assisted Living for All), project co-funded by COMPETE under FEDER via QREN Programme; by Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq) via Grant No. 309335/2017-5; and by FINEP, with resources from Funttel, Grant No. 01.14.0231.00, under the Centro de Referencia em Radiocomunicacoes - CRR project of the Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicacoes (Inatel), Brazil.Silva, BM.; Rodrigues, JJPC.; Canelo, F.; Lopes, IMC.; Lloret, J. (2019). Towards a Cooperative Security System for Mobile-Health Applications. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications. 19(3):629-654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-014-9154-362965419

Authentication schemes for Smart Mobile Devices: Threat Models, Countermeasures, and Open Research Issues

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of authentication schemes for smart mobile devices. We start by providing an overview of existing survey articles published in the recent years that deal with security for mobile devices. Then, we give a classification of threat models in smart mobile devices in five categories, including, identity-based attacks, eavesdropping-based attacks, combined eavesdropping and identity-based attacks, manipulation-based attacks, and service-based attacks. This is followed by a description of multiple existing threat models. We also provide a classification of countermeasures into four types of categories, including, cryptographic functions, personal identification, classification algorithms, and channel characteristics. According to the characteristics of the countermeasure along with the authentication model iteself, we categorize the authentication schemes for smart mobile devices in four categories, namely, 1) biometric-based authentication schemes, 2) channel-based authentication schemes, 3) factors-based authentication schemes, and 4) ID-based authentication schemes. In addition, we provide a taxonomy and comparison of authentication schemes for smart mobile devices in form of tables. Finally, we identify open challenges and future research directions

Holistic System Design for Distributed National eHealth Services

publishedVersio

An architecture for secure data management in medical research and aided diagnosis

Programa Oficial de Doutoramento en Tecnoloxías da Información e as Comunicacións. 5032V01[Resumo] O Regulamento Xeral de Proteccion de Datos (GDPR) implantouse o 25 de maio de 2018 e considerase o desenvolvemento mais importante na regulacion da privacidade de datos dos ultimos 20 anos. As multas fortes definense por violar esas regras e non e algo que os centros sanitarios poidan permitirse ignorar. O obxectivo principal desta tese e estudar e proponer unha capa segura/integracion para os curadores de datos sanitarios, onde: a conectividade entre sistemas illados (localizacions), a unificacion de rexistros nunha vision centrada no paciente e a comparticion de datos coa aprobacion do consentimento sexan as pedras angulares de a arquitectura controlar a sua identidade, os perfis de privacidade e as subvencions de acceso. Ten como obxectivo minimizar o medo a responsabilidade legal ao compartir os rexistros medicos mediante o uso da anonimizacion e facendo que os pacientes sexan responsables de protexer os seus propios rexistros medicos, pero preservando a calidade do tratamento do paciente. A nosa hipotese principal e: os conceptos Distributed Ledger e Self-Sovereign Identity son unha simbiose natural para resolver os retos do GDPR no contexto da saude? Requirense solucions para que os medicos e investigadores poidan manter os seus fluxos de traballo de colaboracion sen comprometer as regulacions. A arquitectura proposta logra eses obxectivos nun ambiente descentralizado adoptando perfis de privacidade de datos illados.[Resumen] El Reglamento General de Proteccion de Datos (GDPR) se implemento el 25 de mayo de 2018 y se considera el desarrollo mas importante en la regulacion de privacidad de datos en los ultimos 20 anos. Las fuertes multas estan definidas por violar esas reglas y no es algo que los centros de salud puedan darse el lujo de ignorar. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es estudiar y proponer una capa segura/de integración para curadores de datos de atencion medica, donde: la conectividad entre sistemas aislados (ubicaciones), la unificacion de registros en una vista centrada en el paciente y el intercambio de datos con la aprobacion del consentimiento son los pilares de la arquitectura propuesta. Esta propuesta otorga al titular de los datos un rol central, que le permite controlar su identidad, perfiles de privacidad y permisos de acceso. Su objetivo es minimizar el temor a la responsabilidad legal al compartir registros medicos utilizando el anonimato y haciendo que los pacientes sean responsables de proteger sus propios registros medicos, preservando al mismo tiempo la calidad del tratamiento del paciente. Nuestra hipotesis principal es: .son los conceptos de libro mayor distribuido e identidad autosuficiente una simbiosis natural para resolver los desafios del RGPD en el contexto de la atencion medica? Se requieren soluciones para que los medicos y los investigadores puedan mantener sus flujos de trabajo de colaboracion sin comprometer las regulaciones. La arquitectura propuesta logra esos objetivos en un entorno descentralizado mediante la adopcion de perfiles de privacidad de datos aislados.[Abstract] The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented on 25 May 2018 and is considered the most important development in data privacy regulation in the last 20 years. Heavy fines are defined for violating those rules and is not something that healthcare centers can afford to ignore. The main goal of this thesis is to study and propose a secure/integration layer for healthcare data curators, where: connectivity between isolated systems (locations), unification of records in a patientcentric view and data sharing with consent approval are the cornerstones of the proposed architecture. This proposal empowers the data subject with a central role, which allows to control their identity, privacy profiles and access grants. It aims to minimize the fear of legal liability when sharing medical records by using anonymisation and making patients responsible for securing their own medical records, yet preserving the patient’s quality of treatment. Our main hypothesis is: are the Distributed Ledger and Self-Sovereign Identity concepts a natural symbiosis to solve the GDPR challenges in the context of healthcare? Solutions are required so that clinicians and researchers can maintain their collaboration workflows without compromising regulations. The proposed architecture accomplishes those objectives in a decentralized environment by adopting isolated data privacy profiles

Pseudonymization and its Application to Cloud-based eHealth Systems

Responding to the security and privacy issues of information systems, we propose a novel pseudonym solution. This pseudonym solution has provable security to protect the identities of users by employing user-generated pseudonyms. It also provides an encryption scheme to protect the security of the users’ data stored in the public network. Moreover, the pseudonym solution also provides the authentication of pseudonyms without disclosing the users’ identity information. Thus the dependences on powerful trusted third parties and on the trustworthiness of system administrators may be appreciably alleviated. Electronic healthcare systems (eHealth systems), as one kind of everyday information system, with the ability to store and share patients’ health data efficiently, have to manage in-formation of an extremely personal nature. As a consequence of known cases of abuse and attacks, the security of the health data and the privacy of patients are a great concern for many people and thus becoming obstacles to the acceptance and spread of eHealth systems. In this thesis, we survey current eHealth systems in both research and practice, analyzing potential threats to the security and privacy. Cloud-based eHealth systems, in particular, enable applications with many new features in data storing and sharing. We analyze the new issues on security and privacy when cloud technology is introduced into eHealth systems. We demonstrate that our proposed pseudonym solution can be successfully applied to cloud-based eHealth systems. Firstly, we utilize the pseudonym scheme and encryption scheme for storing and retrieving the electronic health records (EHR) in the cloud. The identities of patients and the confidentiality of EHR contents are provably guaranteed by advanced cryptographic algorithms. Secondly, we utilize the pseudonym solution to protect the privacy of patients from the health insurance companies. Only necessary information about patients is disclosed to the health insurance companies, without interrupting the cur-rent normal business processes of health insurance. At last, based on the pseudonym solution, we propose a new procedure for the secondary use of the health data. The new procedure protects the privacy of patients properly and enables patients’ full control and clear consent over their health data to be secondarily used. A prototypical application of a cloud-based eHealth system implementing our proposed solution is presented in order to exhibit the practicability of the solution and to provide intuitive experiences. Some performance estimations of the proposed solution based on the implementation are also provided.Um gewisse Sicherheits- und Datenschutzdefizite heutiger Informationssysteme zu beheben, stellen wir eine neuartige Pseudonymisierungslösung vor, die benutzergenerierte Pseudonyme verwendet und die Identitäten der Pseudonyminhaber nachweisbar wirksam schützt. Sie beinhaltet neben der Pseudonymisierung auch ein Verschlüsselungsverfahren für den Schutz der Vertraulichkeit der Benutzerdaten, wenn diese öffentlich gespeichert werden. Weiterhin bietet sie ein Verfahren zur Authentisierung von Pseudonymen, das ohne die Offenbarung von Benutzeridentitäten auskommt. Dadurch können Abhängigkeiten von vertrauenswürdigen dritten Stellen (trusted third parties) oder von vertrauenswürdigen Systemadministratoren deutlich verringert werden. Elektronische Gesundheitssysteme (eHealth-Systeme) sind darauf ausgelegt, Patientendaten effizient zu speichern und bereitzustellen. Solche Daten haben ein extrem hohes Schutzbedürfnis, und bekannte Fälle von Angriffen auf die Vertraulichkeit der Daten durch Privilegienmissbrauch und externe Attacken haben dazu geführt, dass die Sorge um den Schutz von Gesundheitsdaten und Patientenidentitäten zu einem großen Hindernis für die Verbreitung und Akzeptanz von eHealth-Systemen geworden ist. In dieser Dissertation betrachten wir gegenwärtige eHealth-Systeme in Forschung und Praxis hinsichtlich möglicher Bedrohungen für Sicherheit und Vertraulichkeit der gespeicherten Daten. Besondere Beachtung finden cloudbasierte eHealth-Systeme, die Anwendungen mit neuartigen Konzepten zur Datenspeicherung und -bereitstellung ermöglichen. Wir analysieren Sicherheits- und Vertraulichkeitsproblematiken, die sich beim Einsatz von Cloud-Technologie in eHealth-Systemen ergeben. Wir zeigen, dass unsere Pseudonymisierungslösung erfolgreich auf cloudbasierte eHealth-Systeme angewendet werden kann. Dabei werden zunächst das Pseudonymisierungs- und das Verschlüsselungsverfahren bei der Speicherung und beim Abruf von elektronischen Gesundheitsdatensätzen (electronic health records, EHR) in der Cloud eingesetzt. Die Vertraulichkeit von Patientenidentitäten und EHR-Inhalten werden dabei durch den Einsatz moderner kryptografischer Algorithmen nachweisbar garantiert. Weiterhin setzen wir die Pseudonymisierungslösung zum Schutz der Privatsphäre der Patienten gegenüber Krankenversicherungsunternehmen ein. Letzteren werden lediglich genau diejenigen Patienteninformationen offenbart, die für den störungsfreien Ablauf ihrer Geschäftsprozesse nötig sind. Schließen schlagen wir eine neuartige Vorgehensweise für die Zweitverwertung der im eHealth-System gespeicherten Daten vor, die die Pseudonymisierungslösung verwendet. Diese Vorgehensweise bietet den Patienten angemessenen Schutz für ihre Privatsphäre und volle Kontrolle darüber, welche Daten für eine Zweitverwertung (z.B. für Forschungszwecke) freigegeben werden. Es wird ein prototypisches, cloudbasiertes eHealth-System vorgestellt, das die Pseudonymisierungslösung implementiert, um deren Praktikabilität zu demonstrieren und intuitive Erfahrungen zu vermitteln. Weiterhin werden, basierend auf der Implementierung, einige Abschätzungen der Performanz der Pseudonymisierungslösung angegeben

Secure Data Sharing and Collaboration in the Cloud

Cloud technology can be leveraged to enable data-sharing capabilities, which can benefit the user through greater productivity and efficiency. However, the Cloud is susceptible to many privacy and security vulnerabilities, which hinders the progress and widescale adoption of data sharing for the purposes of collaboration. Thus, there is a strong demand for data owners to not only ensure that their data is kept private and secure in the Cloud, but to also have a degree of control over their own data contents once they are shared with data consumers. Specifically, the main issues for data sharing in the Cloud include key management, security attacks, and data-owner access control. In terms of key management, it is vital that data must first be encrypted before storage in the Cloud, to prevent privacy and security breaches. However, the management of encryption keys is a great challenge. The sharing of keys with data consumers has proven to be ineffective, especially when considering data-consumer revocation. Security attacks may also prevent the widescale usage of the Cloud for data-sharing purposes. Common security attacks include insider attacks, collusion attacks, and man-in-the-middle attacks. In terms of access control, authorised data consumers could do anything they wish with an owner's data, including sending it to their peers and colleagues without the data owner's knowledge. Throughout this thesis, we investigate ways in which to address these issues. We first propose a key partitioning technique that aims to address the key management problem. We deploy this technique in a number of scenarios, such as remote healthcare management. We also develop secure data-sharing protocols that aim to mitigate and prevent security attacks on the Cloud. Finally, we focus on giving the data owner greater control, by developing a self-controlled software object called SafeProtect