A Novel System for Managing Encrypted Data Using Searchable Encryption Techniques

Abstract

The motivation for this study arises; from the insufficient security measures provided by cloud service providers, particularly with regard to data integrity and confidentiality. In today’s digital landscape, nearly every international organization stores data in the cloud, whether through in-house servers or third-party providers. While encrypting data prior to storage addresses certain security concerns, it does not fully resolve the issue. Specifically, how can a server effectively process or search the data without decrypting it? This challenge is addressed by the concept of searchable encryption. Therefore, the objective of this study is to implement and evaluate a contemporary set of searchable encryption algorithms within a web-based platform. The study includes a comprehensive performance analysis of the implemented algorithms and an evaluation of the system based on the statistical outcomes of these algorithms. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the advancement of secure and efficient methods for managing encrypted data in cloud environments. This study evaluates an image search system using the FAST protocol, achieving an average search time of 28.696 ms per image and an average deletion time of 0.557 seconds. While slower than FAST’s benchmarks due to limited computational resources and additional processing steps, the system demonstrated reliable performance within its constraints. These results highlight the trade-offs between security, functionality, and performance, offering valuable insights for future optimizations in resource-constrained environments.