Decentralized Contact Tracing Using a DHT and Blind Signatures
Key: 2020a
Author: Samuel Brack, Leonie Reichert, Björn Scheuermann
Date: November 2020
Kind: In proceedings
Publisher: IEEE
Book title: 2020 IEEE 45th Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)
Abstract: Contact tracing is a promising approach to combat the COVID -19 pandemic. Various systems have been proposed to automatise the process. However, user privacy was not a major design goal in most of these systems. Other designs rely heavily on a centralised server or reveal significant amounts of private data to health authorities. We propose CAUDHT, a decentralized peer-to-peer system for contact tracing. The central health authority can focus on providing and operating tests for the disease while contact tracing is done by the system’s users themselves. We use a distributed hash table to build a decentral messaging system for infected patients and their contacts. With blind signatures, we ensure that messages about infections are authentic and unchanged. A strong privacy focus enables data integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
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