Clement Heyd and Arbion Halili have developed a system to prevent scientific fraud by creating a proprietary platform for a ThermoFisher Scientific 7500 Fast PCR machine that electronically signs the results.
This is done through a process of isolating its daughter-software, and running it on a protected Windows XP OS, which then passes through a data diode virtual serial port that immediately signs the data with a Hardware Security Module.
The signed data is then verified through a public key, and the authenticity of the results can be checked.
This process is a solid start to fighting scientific fraud, and could be applied to other machines, but there are still challenges in implementing this across a chain of custody for samples in medical research.
Scientific fraud is an endemic issue and this system helps to provide a remedy, and could be applied across a range of machines.
