TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sayeed, Sarwar
AU  - Papadopoulos, Pavlos
AU  - Kasimatis, Dimitrios
AU  - Pitropakis, Nikolaos
AU  - Buchanan, William J.
AU  - Markakis, Evangelos K.
AU  - Papatsaroucha, Dimitra
AU  - Pityanou, Konstantina
AU  - Politis, Ilias
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/23
TI  - A Secure and Auditable Distributed Data-Sharing Framework for Multi-Domain Systems
JO  - ICCK Transactions on Information Security and Cryptography
T2  - ICCK Transactions on Information Security and Cryptography
JF  - ICCK Transactions on Information Security and Cryptography
VL  - 2
IS  - 3
SP  - 172
EP  - 191
DO  - 10.62762/TISC.2026.917693
UR  - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TISC.2026.917693
KW  - distributed storage
KW  - audit trail
KW  - data sharing
KW  - privacy
KW  - transparency
AB  - Data is one of the essential assets of every organisation, and its security has frequently been highlighted as a concern due to unauthorised access, breaches, and tampering. Conventional data repositories are often based on centralised setups, which are prone to problems such as single points of failure, privacy breaches, and unpredictable system behaviour. While an auditing mechanism can strengthen transparency by tracking how data is accessed, such tools are often managed by external third parties or rely on manual methods. Additionally, due to complexities such as duplicate user credentials across multiple services and systems, it becomes even more difficult for users to control their content. Furthermore, without an access-monitoring system in place, attackers can usually evade detection, leaving the system compromised while they manipulate sensitive data. To address these shortcomings, we propose a distributed data-sharing framework, developed as part of a Trusted Mediator Platform, that enhances data privacy and security by employing a distributed data repository for secure storage and retrieval, integrated with an audit framework implemented on a permissioned blockchain. Our method is designed to mitigate unauthorised access, data tampering, and single points of failure (SPOFs) by distributing data across trusted nodes and providing a tamper-resistant ledger, ensuring traceability and integrity. Our experiment demonstrates strong performance, with average blockchain transaction latency remaining below 1~s for batches of up to 10,000 transactions (tx) and throughput attaining over 115 tx/s, while IPFS achieved an upload throughput of approximately 35 one-megabyte files per second at a batch size of 300, thus indicating their feasibility for the exchange and secure storage of essential data.
SN  - 3070-2429
PB  - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge
LA  - English
ER  - 

@article{Sayeed2026A,
  author = {Sarwar Sayeed and Pavlos Papadopoulos and Dimitrios Kasimatis and Nikolaos Pitropakis and William J. Buchanan and Evangelos K. Markakis and Dimitra Papatsaroucha and Konstantina Pityanou and Ilias Politis},
  title = {A Secure and Auditable Distributed Data-Sharing Framework for Multi-Domain Systems},
  journal = {ICCK Transactions on Information Security and Cryptography},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {2},
  number = {3},
  pages = {172-191},
  doi = {10.62762/TISC.2026.917693},
  url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TISC.2026.917693},
  abstract = {Data is one of the essential assets of every organisation, and its security has frequently been highlighted as a concern due to unauthorised access, breaches, and tampering. Conventional data repositories are often based on centralised setups, which are prone to problems such as single points of failure, privacy breaches, and unpredictable system behaviour. While an auditing mechanism can strengthen transparency by tracking how data is accessed, such tools are often managed by external third parties or rely on manual methods. Additionally, due to complexities such as duplicate user credentials across multiple services and systems, it becomes even more difficult for users to control their content. Furthermore, without an access-monitoring system in place, attackers can usually evade detection, leaving the system compromised while they manipulate sensitive data. To address these shortcomings, we propose a distributed data-sharing framework, developed as part of a Trusted Mediator Platform, that enhances data privacy and security by employing a distributed data repository for secure storage and retrieval, integrated with an audit framework implemented on a permissioned blockchain. Our method is designed to mitigate unauthorised access, data tampering, and single points of failure (SPOFs) by distributing data across trusted nodes and providing a tamper-resistant ledger, ensuring traceability and integrity. Our experiment demonstrates strong performance, with average blockchain transaction latency remaining below 1~s for batches of up to 10,000 transactions (tx) and throughput attaining over 115 tx/s, while IPFS achieved an upload throughput of approximately 35 one-megabyte files per second at a batch size of 300, thus indicating their feasibility for the exchange and secure storage of essential data.},
  keywords = {distributed storage, audit trail, data sharing, privacy, transparency},
  issn = {3070-2429},
  publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}