Abstract
BackgroundData security has been a critical topic of research and discussion since the onset of data sharing in e-health systems. Although digitalization of data has increased efficiency and speed, it has also made data vulnerable to cyber attacks. Medical records in particular seem to be the regular victims of hackers. Several data breach incidents throughout history have warranted the invention of security measures against these threats. Although various security procedures like firewalls, virtual private networks, encryption, etc are present, a mix of these approaches are required for maximum security in medical image and data sharing.MethodsRelatively new, blockchain has become an effective tool for safeguarding sensitive information. However, to ensure overall protection of medical data (images), security measures have to be taken at each step, from the beginning, during and even after transmission of medical images which is ensured by zero trust security model. In this research, a number of studies that deal with these two concepts were studied and a decentralized and trustless framework was proposed by combining these two concepts for secured medical data and image transfer and storage.ResultsResearch output suggested blockchain technology ensures data integrity by maintaining an audit trail of every transaction while zero trust principles make sure the medical data is encrypted and only authenticated users and devices interact with the network. Thus the proposed model solves a lot of vulnerabilities related to data security.ConclusionsA system to combat medical/health data vulnerabilities has been proposed. The system makes use of the immutability of blockchain, the additional security of zero trust principles, and the scalability of off chain data storage using Inter Planetary File Systems (IPFS). The adoption of this system suggests to enhance the security of medical or health data transmission.
Highlights
Data security has been a critical topic of research and discussion since the onset of data sharing in e-health systems
The file itself is stored off chain in Inter Planetary File Systems (IPFS) while blocks in blockchain store the corresponding ipfshash
The system was connected to an IPFS node instance with the help of Infura for uploading image files
Summary
Data security has been a critical topic of research and discussion since the onset of data sharing in e-health systems. The threats Internet users have been facing since the first data breach have remained the same In this vein, Jung et al.[5] classified internet security into interception, fabrication, modification, and interruption. Blockchain is being implemented in various fields for data security, its use in the health sector to secure patient records is the most beneficial and crucial [13,14,15]. This is because health records are some of the most sensitive information out there and continues to be the victim of cyber attacks constantly [6]. Recent experiments by Israeli researchers show how MRI and CT scans can be tampered without any trace [18]
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