A Format-Preserving Encryption Method for Securing Geospatial Vector Map Data

In recent years, advances in Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and applications have significantly enhanced the usability of spatial data. GIS has become a vital resource for mapping and visualising spatial information. Additionally, increased research in the GIS field has resulted in a wide availability of digital spatial data, which influences various reallife applications. The high value of spatial vector map data entails risks of unauthorised access, modification, or distribution. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain the confidentiality of this data and protect it from unauthorised access. To address this challenge, numerous research efforts have explored cryptographic methods as a promising solution. Encryption methods can be broadly classified into two main categories: frequency domain implementation and spatial domain implementation. Spatial domain implementation is faster and less computationally intensive compared to frequency domain encryption. However, many proposed methods fail to preserve the data format and maintain the accuracy of spatial coordinates. Additionally, most existing methods do not consider computational time performance, which extends their applicability to many real-time applications, such as drone surveillance systems. In this paper, we propose a spatial domain polygon-based encryption approach that encrypts spatial vector data while preserving the data format and improving computational time performance efficiently. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and performance of the proposed encryption approach compared to existing methods.