Hi,
I don't know how I got onto this mailing list, but PLEASE remove me!!
Jan
LIS Projects Manager
Bucks Health Authority
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Gatehouse Road
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-----Original Message-----
From: p=NHS NATIONAL
INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=andrew(u)p(u)ho(a)eudoramail.com;
Sent: 28 March 2001 17:27
To: p=NHS NATIONAL INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=midgley(a)mednetics.org;
Cc: p=NHS NATIONAL
INT;a=NHS;c=GB;dda:RFC-822=openhealth-list(a)minoru-development.com;
Subject: Re: tampering withelectronic health records
Hi Adrian,
Good thinking! I suppose you would propose to keep the entire medical record in the
Eternity Service?
Unfortunately, the Eternity service cannot deliver both availability and
confidentiality. That is the design trade-off. The reason why it can deliver
availability is because no one needs to have a key or special knowledge to retrieve
data. So, you are correct that there is a way to scatter data and that you don't have
to worry about loss of a retrieval key since you don't need one to retrieve that data.
But the cost is that anyone else will be able to use the same method and get your
data. That, actually, is the whole point of the Eternity Service! Ross never claims
that it can deliver confidentiality - his aim is to prevent "denial of service" - i.e.
provide availability.
Delivering confidentiality requires that the system be capable of denying service
selectively - hopefully while able to provide availability! Sequentially Distributed
Secret Splitting
(http://www.txoutcome.org/scripts/zope/library/files/browse/show_contents?objectid=45)
is a data scattering method that may provide both confidentiality and availability.
Ross Anderson thought it was promising when I sent it to him for review in 1999
(before I submitted the paper). I'll send you his comments if you are interested.
Best regards,
Andrew
---
Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
www.TxOutcome.Org
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
University of California, Los Angeles
On Wed, 28 Mar 2001 09:51:53 Dr Adrian Midgley wrote:
>Andrew Ho worried about the durability of the replicated information...
>
>Ross Anderson solved this a while ago, before P2P became a buzz word, and I commend
>the paper on
>The Eternity Service
>at
>http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk:80/users/rja14/eternity
>
>
>--
>Adrian Midgley
>Exeter
>http://www.swis.net/midgley/
>
>
>
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