# A Usable Encryption Solution for File-Based Geospatial Data within a Database File System
## 2 Security and Usability Concerns for Spatial Files within Enterprise GIS
Security solutions, however, are not about encryption _alone_, and a limitation of that work, and also of other spatial file encryption solutions in the literature, is the lack of an overall encryption-decryption solution that caters to file encryption in a _multi-user_ environment. A security system needs to be _usable_. Mechanisms implemented for security and privacy _should not_ complicate workflows and must be _transparent_ for the user [53]. However, increased usability of software applications generally reduces security and privacy up to a significant level [54]. Conversely, solutions focusing on security and privacy usually lead to decreased usability and use, as has been well documented in the Information Systems domain [53, 54]. While establishing a trade-off between usability and security, complexity should be avoided during user interface design [55]. Similarly, a GIS is not an exception, and only a few users will ever use real security applications that take too long or are too complicated and present too many details of the cryptographic process. While GIS application security against usability is a relatively unexplored topic [56], researchers focusing on the usability aspects of GIS applications have highlighted that user-friendly and easy-to-use interfaces were most important. [PERSON] et.al. emphasised that users need to _\"access spatial information quickly, without any special software tool and without any special training\"_ ([57], p. 1). Our study is focused on addressing this challenge. The notion of usability often revolves around metrics of _effectiveness_, _efficiency_, and _user satisfaction_[58, 59]. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) formally defines usability concerning information technology as _\"the extent to which a product, system, or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use\"_[60]. Relating to the definitions in ISO 9241-11:2018 [60]:  
* _Effectiveness_ concerns the completeness and accuracy when users carry out the tasks when using a product;
* _Efficiency_ relates to the resource expenditure; and
* _Satisfaction_ is about the user's attitude regarding the use of a product. Considering these metrics, we explore an alternative security solution that offers a centralised storage repository for managing and securing spatial files of various types, and also protects these files at the storage level without changing the way GIS end-users work with data server repositories. Achieving this functionality would require multiple technological components to be integrated, and investigating the security and usability of the overall approach is part of our objectives, which are as follows:  
* To be able to store heterogeneous spatial data files (json, shapefile, gdb, and so on) in a container that indexes everything spatially;
* To implement file encryption within the storage repository, resulting in a usable encryption solution for use with various GIS applications and user types; and
* To investigate the usability of such a solution in terms of its _effectiveness_, _efficiency_, and _satisfaction_. In summary, current GIS storage mechanisms are limited in consolidating different spatial file formats and in providing a usable encryption-decryption solution. Securing these files can play an important role in enterprise GIS environments, as current solutions and systems do not address this concern. The latest desktop GIS applications (such as ESRI ArcGIS Pro and so on) do not address the security solution at all for working with heterogeneous files and personal geodatabase workspaces. Available technologies today can be combined to facilitate these security limitations. This research examines the feasibility of storing spatial files in DBFS and applying cryptography for their further protection.