Ensuring Data Integrity in Fog Computing Based Health-Care Systems

Abstract

The advancement of information technology in coming years will bring significant changes to the way healthcare data is processed. Technologies such as cloud computing, fog computing, and the Internet of things (IoT) will offer healthcare providers and consumers opportunities to obtain effective and efficient services via real-time data exchange. However, as with any computer system, these services are not without risks. There is the possibility that systems might be infiltrated by malicious users and, as a result, data could be corrupted, which is a cause for concern. Once an attacker damages a set of data items, the damage can spread through the database. When valid transactions read corrupted data, they can update other data items based on the value read. Given the sensitive nature of healthcare data and the critical need to provide real-time access for decision-making, it is vital that any damage done by a malicious transaction and spread by valid transactions must be corrected immediately and accurately. Here, we present two models for using fog computing in healthcare: an architecture using fog modules with heterogeneous data, and another using fog modules with homogeneous data. We propose a unique approach for each module to assess the damage caused by malicious transactions, so that original data may be recovered and affected transactions may be identified for future investigations.