Hierarchical Query Mechanisms for Searchable Encrypted Databases

Hierarchical Query Mechanisms for Searchable Encrypted Databases

Nasrullah, I.H.

Erkin, Z. (mentor)
Lagendijk, R.L. (mentor)

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

ICT Group

2009-06-30

Detecting and tracking of objects by a tracking device can be considered a breach of privacy when an unauthorised party can associate certain tracking information outputted by the tracker to the identity of an individual. Therefore, when this privacy-sensitive information is stored in a database, it is desired that this is done in a secure manner. A commonly used approach to achieve secure database storage is the application of access control mechanisms. Access control mechanisms prevent unauthorised parties from accessing the database in a conventional manner. In this work it is argued that, while helpful, access control mechanisms alone are not sufficient and that the use of encryption is a helpful next step in achieving secure storage of privacy-sensitive data. In this work, secure database storage of the combination of an identity and its associated tracking information is investigated. In particular, this work introduces and explores Hierarchical Query Mechanisms (HQMs). HQMs allow an authorised party to perform hierarchical queries over an encrypted database, without leaking any information related to the contents of the encrypted database to an unauthorised party. Several cryptographic protocols that support a HQM are designed and their relative merits and flaws are discussed. The protocols discussed in this work support HQMs through the use of key extraction and searchable encryption mechanisms. The protocols are implemented to examine their practical performance. Finally some recommendations for future work are proposed and discussed.

Hierarchical Query Mechanisms
Searchable Encrypted Databases
Information Security
Privacy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2b736629-4e3c-40f2-b64d-c65e79847cb9

2009-07-01

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2009 Nasrullah, I.H.