Ontological Representation of Healthcare Application Security Using Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Blockchain is gaining traction for improving the security of healthcare applications, however, it does not become a silver bullet as various security threats are observed in blockchain-based applications. Moreover, when performing the security risk management (SRM) of blockchain-based applications, there are conceptual ambiguities and semantic gaps that hinder from treating the security threats effectively. To address these issues, we present a blockchain-based healthcare security ontology (HealthOnt) that offers coherent and formal information models to treat security threats of traditional and blockchain-based applications. We evaluate the ontology by performing the SRM of a back-pain patient’s healthcare application case. The results show that HealthOnt can support the iterative process of SRM and can be continually updated when new security threats, vulnerabilities, or countermeasures emerge. In addition, the HealthOnt may assist in the modelling and analysis of real-world situations while addressing important security concerns from the perspective of stakeholders. This work can help blockchain developers, practitioners, and other associated stakeholders to develop secure blockchain-based healthcare applications in the early stages.

Blockchain-Based Framework for Interoperable Electronic Health Records for an Improved Healthcare System

“…IPFS, a distributed file system based on blockchain, is used to store data and create secure channels of communication. A P2P network used by blockchain makes it difficult for attackers to sniff or intercept communications [35].…”

Combining Blockchain and Semantic Technologies: A Survey

“…Iqbal et al [25] propose HealthOn which is a web ontology language to build BCT based security ontologies to remove conceptual ambiguity and semantic gaps. This work is extended by Matulevicius et al [26] by including blockchainbased healthcare application security threats. Chondrogiannis et al [27] propose a distributed application (DApp) using BCT and ST that enable individuals and health insurance organizations to come into agreement during the implementation of healthcare insurance policies.…”

“…The security sub-theme appears in organizations: BCT can tackle security threats and provide data integrity. This can be used to decentralise healthcare data operations and to make healthcare data transparent and immutable [25], [26]. Also, a multi-layer method is developed for a semantically-enriched blockchain software ecosystem named ONTOCHAIN.…”

“…For example, HealthOnt supports the selection of BCT by security experts when designing healthcare applications. It encodes traditional healthcare applications' information security into a blockchain-based system development that can be extended, reused, or integrated with other security ontologies [25], [26].…”

Advancing Research Reproducibility in Machine Learning through Blockchain Technology

“…These alternatives take advantage of advancements such as transparency, traceability, tokenization, consensus mechanisms, incentivization, codification of trust, and decentralized infrastructure (Juodis et al, 2024;Marcozzi et al, 2024). Using blockchain technology, pioneered by Nakamoto (Nakamoto, 2008) and built on prior research (Bayer et al, 1993;Haber and Stornetta, 1991;Lamport et al, 1982), effective decentralized solutions can be implemented (Knez et al, 2022;Matulevičius et al, 2022;Sakalauskas et al, 2023).…”