Enhancing the Security of Exchanging and Storing DICOM Medical Images on the Cloud

TLDR

Medical images are routinely exchanged via cloud-based services, with DICOM being the most widely used format in hospitals. The study aims to improve secure cloud transfer and storage of medical images by employing hybrid encryption that combines symmetric and asymmetric algorithms for speed and security. The framework uses three lightweight algorithms—suitable for hardware or software implementation—along with a digital signature to provide high security while keeping memory and computational demands low. Analysis of a 12.5 Mb DICOM file revealed a total processing time of 2.957 minutes, with encryption taking 1.898 minutes and decryption 1.059 minutes.

Abstract

Medical image information can be exchanged remotely through cloud-based medical imaging services. Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) is considered to be the most commonly used medical image format among hospitals. The objective of this article is to enhance the secure transfer and storage of medical images on the cloud by using hybrid encryption algorithms, which are a combination of symmetric encryption algorithms and asymmetric encryption algorithms that make the encryption process faster and more secure. To this end, three different algorithms are chosen to build the framework. These algorithms are simple and suitable for hardware or software implementation because they require low memory and low computational power yet provide high security. Also, security was increased by using a digital signature technique. The results of the analyses showed that for a DICOM file with size 12.5 Mb, 2.957 minutes was required to complete the process. This was totaled from the encryption process took 1.898 minutes, and the decryption process took 1.059 minutes.