Security and Privacy in IoT-Cloud-Based e-Health Systems—A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

When the Internet and other interconnected networks are used in a health system, it is referred to as “e-Health.” In this paper, we examined research studies from 2017–2020 to explore the utilization of intelligent techniques in health and its evolution over time, particularly the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cloud computing. E-Health is defined as “the ability to seek, find, understand and appraise health information derived from electronic sources and acquired knowledge to properly solve or treat health problems. As a repository for health information as well as e-Health analysis, the Internet has the potential to protect consumers from harm and empower them to participate fully in informed health-related decision-making. Most importantly, high levels of e-Health integration mitigate the risk of encountering unreliable information on the Internet. Various research perspectives related to security and privacy within IoT-cloud-based e-Health systems are examined, with an emphasis on the opportunities, benefits and challenges of the implementation such systems. The combination of IoT-based e-Health systems integrated with intelligent systems such as cloud computing that provide smart objectives and applications is a promising future trend.

Evaluating the E-Health Cloud Computing Systems Adoption in Taiwan’s Healthcare Industry

“…However, as mentioned previously, the adoption of cloud computing technology has presented numerous applications for the healthcare industry, principally with respect to their management (e.g., information integration, convenient information sharing, and cost effectiveness), service delivery (e.g., testing and debugging, software research and development, and system stability), security (e.g., confidentiality, data integrity, and access control), and software (e.g., software convenience, cloud-based medical image exchange, and software scalability) [ 18 , 24 , 25 , 27 ]. The healthcare industry is highly complex because of the operational difficulties of providing medical services [ 25 , 27 , 28 ]. Healthcare includes dissimilar stakeholders with various interests and industry-specific features [ 27 , 29 ].…”

“…The services of the cloud also remove the expenditures related to buying data storage devices, providing management and maintenance, enabling convenient information sharing, and purchasing other hardware. Without cloud services, customers would need to solve these management problems [ 24 , 25 ]. Therefore, information integration, convenient information sharing, and cost effectiveness are serious concerns in the assessment of cloud management functions for e-health cloud computing systems.…”

“…Moreover, testing and debugging, software research and development, and system stability are closely related with system security owing to the degree to which system engineers stress that information security is related to the probability of realizing the security of data storage and system stability. As the service systems of healthcare cloud computing operate on the structures of network, they are weak to viruses, information theft, and hackers [ 24 , 25 ]. Therefore, testing and debugging, software research and development, and system stability are serious factors in the evaluation of cloud service delivery for e-health cloud computing systems.…”

“…In the healthcare industry, convenient software, cloud-based medical image exchange, and software scalability are mostly critical. Owing to software convenience, software design and software scalability should satisfy the demands of the environment of healthcare, healthcare personnel and patients should be able to configure and regulate the functions of systems; when such demands are satisfied, the resulting cloud computing systems of healthcare can yield high user fulfillment [ 24 , 25 ]. Cloud-based medical image exchange is a critical requirement because this function may focus on emergency care.…”

A Smart Biometric Identity Management Framework for Personalised IoT and Cloud Computing-Based Healthcare Services

“…They aim at easing the daily lives of people with disabilities and help in managing chronic medical conditions. Nonetheless, the inherited security and privacy risks from both the IoT and Cloud Computing domains are driving enormous apprehension from the end-users, such as with the case of patients in healthcare applications [ 19 ]. As a result, biometric-based authentication models can help mitigating these risks given their unique identification characteristics and their ease of use as they are almost transparent to the user [ 20 ].…”