Post-quantum secure audit trails for healthcare compliance
*Nikhilchandra MahajanCorresponding authordrnnmahajan@gmail.comDepartment of Emergency MedicineKrishna Institute of Medical SciencesKrishna Vishwa Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)Karad, Maharashtra, 415539, IndiaView full profile → , Tanya Singhdean.academics@niu.edu.inSchool of Engineering and TechnologyNoida International UniversityGreater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201312, IndiaView full profile → , D. Sandhya Ranisandhyarani_vce1645@vardhaman.orgDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning)Vardhaman College of EngineeringShamshabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, 501218, IndiaView full profile → , Dharmesh Dhabliyadharmesh.dhabliya@viit.ac.inDepartment of Information TechnologyVishwakarma Institute of TechnologyPune, Maharashtra, 411048, IndiaView full profile → , K. KasthuriKasthurik@maher.ac.inDepartment of BiochemistryMeenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research InstituteMeenakshi Academy of Higher Education & ResearchChennai, Tamil Nadu, 631552, IndiaView full profile → , G. V. Rajeswarigvrajeswari@outlook.comDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning)Pragati Engineering CollegeKakinada, Andhra Pradesh, 533437, IndiaView full profile →
* Corresponding author · click or hover a name for details
- Received:
- 01 Mar 2026
- Published Online:
- 31 Oct 2026
- Article type:
- Research Article
- Language:
- EN
- Article no.:
- JIOS-2505
- Pages:
- 3813–3823
Abstract
Audit trails are more and more seen as a key to healthcare compliance, and it is now essential that those audit trails are confidential, verifiable and quantum-resistant. This study presents a module-lattice signature hash-chain linking authenticated encryption and trusted time-stamping based audit framework that is secure against attacks in the post-quantum era. All the clinical events are coded, signed, time-stamped and linked to the previous events, which allows for identification of tamper, event provenance and accountable access. The formal security is guaranteed by probability spaces for unforgeability, collision resistance, confidentiality and forward integrity with respect to quantum adversaries. Experimental comparison with classical based audit schemes using RSA and elliptic curve indicate a verification accuracy of 98.7%, 29.6% less storage overhead and 37.4% faster batch validation when compared to a lattice-based baseline design. The framework offers a flexible approach to the preservation of evidence about eHRs, regulatory audits, medico-legal cases, and more, and it can adapt to healthcare interoperability and compliance needs in the long term.
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References
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