Security Analysis of Geoencryption: A Case Study Using Loran

The term “geoencryption” or “location-based encryption” refer to a security algorithm that limits the access or decryption of information content to specified locations and/or times. The algorithm does not replace any of the conventional cryptographic algorithms, but instead adds an additional layer of security. Loran is chosen as a case study to implement geoencryption due to its many properties that are beneficial to this protocol. Loran’s stationary transmitters result in many location dependent parameters. Low frequency and high power signal can reach places like urban canyons and indoor environments. Enhanced Loran can provide a data channel useful for geoencryption. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of Loran for geoencryption we need to perform two tasks: 1) build a testbed to implement geoencryption protocol, and 2) examine the performance and security of the system. The prototype of geoencryption demonstration was built and further refinements are needed. To accomplish the second task, a threat model is developed and analyzed using the testbed built in the first task. In this threat model we discussed false positives and false negatives of the system. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) provides as an important metric to judge the performance analysis. This paper describes the work on analyzing system performance using the designed threat model. In addition, some data collections were done using the geoencryption testbed. This paper also provides a comparison on the experimental results and analytical results.