Didactic visualization for a searchable encryption

Searchable Encryption(SE) is an encryption technique that allows a user to delegate data storage to a third-party service provider, without compromising data confidentiality and searching functionality. The prevalence of cloud storage has given rise to the need for SE, and people who can work with SE in academics and applications. However, in general, the education of cryptography is difficult due to the complex nature of the subject. While it is common to use software systems for visual representations of algorithms for both teaching and laboratory exercises, there is no visualization tool for Searchable Encryption schemes yet. In this paper, we explore how visualization can help undergraduate CS students to understand an early SE scheme as well as the general idea of SE. The proposed visualization prototype is available at: https://github.com/RuilinYang-beta/SearchableEncryption.