The Hidden Adversarial Vulnerabilities of Medical Federated Learning

Erfan Darzi, Florian Dubost, Nanna Maria Sijtsema, Peter M. A. van Ooijen

Abstract: In this paper, we delve into the susceptibility of federated medical image analysis systems to adversarial attacks. Our analysis uncovers a novel exploitation avenue: using gradient information from prior global model updates, adversaries can enhance the efficiency and transferability of their attacks. Specifically, we demonstrate that single-step attacks (e.g. FGSM), when aptly initialized, can outperform the efficiency of their iterative counterparts but with reduced computational demand. Our findings underscore the need to revisit our understanding of AI security in federated healthcare settings.