Securing Healthcare Records in the Cloud Using Attribute-Based Encryption

Cloud Computing has attracted interest as an efficient system for storing and access of data. Sharing of personal electronic health record is an arising concept of exchanging health information for research and other purposes. Cconfidentiality except for authorized users, and access auditability are strong security requirements for health record. This study will examine these requirements and propose a framework for healthcare cloud providers that will assist in securely storing and sharing of patient’ data they host. It should also allow only legitimate users to access portion of the records' data they are permitted to. The focus will be on these precise security issues of cloud computing healthcare and how attribute-based encryption can assist in addressing healthcare regulatory requirements. The proposed attribute-based encryption guarantees authentication, data confidentiality, availability, and integrity in a multi-level hierarchical order. This will allow the healthcare provider to easily add/delete any access rule in any order, which is considered beneficial particularly in medical research field.