A Secure DICOM File shall contain a single DICOM File encapsulated with the Cryptographic Message Syntax as defined in RFC3369. Depending on the cryptographic algorithms used for encapsulation, a Secure DICOM File can provide one or more the following security properties:

In addition, a Secure DICOM File offers the possibility to communicate encryption keys and certificates to the intended recipients by means of key transport, key agreement or symmetric key-encryption key schemes.