WiP: AABAC - Automated Attribute Based Access Control for Genomics Data

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent vaccine development have demonstrated the potential of cutting-edge genomics research. However, the privacy of these sensitive pieces of information is an area of significant concern for genomics researchers. The current security models make it difficult to create flexible, automated, and secure data-sharing frameworks. These models also increase the complexity of adding or revoking access. In this work, we investigate an automated attribute-based access control (AABAC) model for genomics data over Named Data Networking (NDN). AABAC secures the data itself rather than the storage location or transmission channel, provides automated data invalidation, and automates key retrieval and data validation while maintaining the ability to control access. When combined with NDN, we show that AABAC offers a secure and flexible access control framework.