RSA-ABE: A Hybrid Encryption Approach for Medical Privacy Data with Cloud Storage

Increasing sensitive medical data raises medical privacy concerns. Unauthorized access endangers patients. We propose an approach using ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) and RSA to enable secure and controlled access to medical data based on user-defined access policies. Our approach enables: (1) Patient-defined fine-grained access control policies; (2) Secure “one-to-many” sharing with authorized users; and (3) Encrypted policy and data transmission. We generate CP-ABE keys and use socket programming to enable patient-user communication. The patient defines an attribute-based access policy. CP-ABE encrypts medical data under this policy. RSA encrypts the public key for transmission to users. Users submit attributes; If users’ attributes satisfy the policy, the ciphertext can be decrypted, authenticating the users. Results show the hybrid scheme achieves secure, controlled medical data sharing through patient-defined access policies. Patients need not know accessing users in advance. Only authorized users related to a patient's condition access data.