Migration of health organization software services to a cloud environment posses special security and confidentiality risks. The proposed work seeks to design and evaluate security mechanisms for cloud computing environments as well as a new security architecture for cloud-based health services. New mechanisms will be developed in the areas of utility-based encryption, data fragmentation, and redactable signatures and tested in several deployed cloud environments. The effort would establish the first integrated cloud security architecture combining protected memory, secure distributed storage, and utility-based encryption.
The outcomes of the proposed work have the potential for significant impact the use of cloud computing in the health care sector. This adoption hinges critically on the fact that the safety, security and integrity of the data be maintained. The proposed work has the potential to achieve an architecture that can preserve these characteristics in a cloud environment. The work is supported by the Industry Advisory Board as well as individual industry members of the center and has the potential to extend the centers portfolio through expansion into the cloud-based health informatics area. The center will involve graduate students in the work and disseminate results both through publication and the involvement of the PI in the Georgia Health Information Exchange (HIE) project.
