Biocrypt: An Advanced Dna-Based Cryptographic Security Framework

Abstract

As genomic data volumes continue to grow rapidly, protecting genetic information throughout its lifecycle—from collection and storage through analysis and sharing—has become a critical challenge. This paper presents BIOCRYPT, a cryptographic framework implementing the DNASSF protocol for secure storage and transport of DNA and RNA sequence data. The system provides multiple security layers: AES-256-GCM for authenticated encryption, X25519 Elliptic Curve Cryptography for key exchange, HKDF-SHA256 for secure key derivation, and age-based key wrapping for device-bound key management. A 2-bit DNA encoding scheme reduces storage requirements by 75% while preserving cryptographic security. The system automatically detects FASTA, FASTQ, and GenBank formats, and converts RNA sequences to DNA for standardized storage. Encrypted workspaces allow multiple data sequences to be stored within a single protected container, supporting collaborative research while maintaining access control. Performance evaluation demonstrates encryption throughput of approximately 4 MB/s with negligible impact on genomic analysis workflows. Implemented in Rust for memory safety, BIOCRYPT provides a robust and efficient solution for protecting genomic data in research, clinical, and biotechnology settings.