Enhancing privacy-preserving brain tumor classification with adaptive reputation-aware federated learning and homomorphic encryption

Brain tumor diagnosis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is critical for improving patient survival rates. However, automating the analysis of these scans faces significant challenges, including data privacy concerns and the scarcity of large, diverse datasets. A potential solution is federated learning (FL), which enables cooperative model training among multiple organizations without requiring the sharing of raw data; however, it faces various challenges. To address these, we propose Federated Adaptive Reputation-aware aggregation with CKKS (Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song) Homomorphic encryption (FedARCH), a novel FL framework designed for a cross-silo scenario, where client weights are aggregated based on reputation scores derived from performance evaluations. Our framework incorporates a weighted aggregation method using these reputation scores to enhance the robustness of the global model. To address sudden changes in client performance, a smoothing factor is introduced, while a decay factor ensures that recent updates have a greater influence on the global model. These factors work together for dynamic performance management. Additionally, we address potential privacy risks from model inversion attacks by implementing a simplified and computationally efficient CKKS homomorphic encryption, which allows secure operations on encrypted data. With FedARCH, encrypted model weights of each client are multiplied by a plaintext reputation score for weighted aggregation. Since we are multiplying ciphertexts by plaintexts, instead of ciphertexts, the need for relinearization is eliminated, efficiently reducing the computational overhead. FedARCH achieved an accuracy of 99.39%, highlighting its potential in distinguishing between brain tumor classes. Several experiments were conducted by adding noise to the clients’ data and varying the number of noisy clients. An accuracy of 94% was maintained even with 50% of noisy clients at a high noise level, while the standard FL approach accuracy dropped to 33%. Our results and the security analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of FedARCH in improving model accuracy, its robustness to noisy data, and its ability to ensure data privacy, making it a viable approach for medical image analysis in federated settings.