Securing Genomic Data Using Fully Homomorphic Encryption: A Feasibility Study

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Presented at HICSS 2025 by

Pascal Moriggl

Gabriel Massaro

Petra Asprion

This study investigated the application of Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) for securing genomic data in cloud computing environments, addressing the critical need for privacy in healthcare. FHE allows computations on encrypted data without decryption, ensuring end-to-end encryption during data transit, rest, and analysis. Main focus is on securely sharing raw genotyping data with untrusted third-party services. A prototype was developed using a design research methodology to assess FHE’s feasibility and performance in real-world scenarios. The results indicate that the prototype maintains privacy without compromising computational efficiency, accurately handling encrypted datasets to provide correct genotype reports. The study highlights FHE’s role in enhancing data security in healthcare and suggests further directions for research towards secure genomic data processing.