Keeping Data Secret, Even From Apps That Use It 59
Nerval's Lobster writes "Datacenters wanting to emulate Google by encrypting their data beyond the ability of the NSA to crack it may get some help from a new encryption technique that allows data to be stored, transported and even used by applications without giving away any secrets. In a paper to be presented at a major European security conference this week, researchers from Denmark and the U.K. collaborated on a practical way to implement a long-discussed encryption concept called Multi-Party Computation (MPC). The idea behind MPC is to allow two parties who have to collaborate on an analysis or computation to do so without revealing their own data to the other party. Though the concept was introduced in 1982, ways to accomplish it with more than two parties, or with standardized protocols and procedures, has not become practical in commercial environments. The Danish/British team revamped an MPC protocol nicknamed SPDZ (pronounced 'speeds'), which uses secret, securely generated keys to distribute a second set of keys that can be used for MPC encryptions. The big breakthrough, according to Smart, was to streamline SPDZ by reducing the number of times global MAC keys had to be calculated in order to create pairs of public and private keys for other uses. By cutting down on repetitive tasks, the whole process becomes much faster; because the new technique keeps global MAC keys secret, it should also make the faster process more secure."
Like homomorphism (Score:4, Interesting)
How is this different from homomorphism? The thing is that it's not intended to keep secrets. Correlations might still exist that could give basic traffic kinds of data away. Have they figured ways to prevent those secrets from leaking?
Re:Well, darn. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not just the NSA. I'm outraged that they're spying on citizens, even though they have no reason to be interested in me. I'm outraged that advertisers insist on knowing my GPS position, who's on my contacts list, etc. It's creepy and it pisses me off. I thought stalking was illegal?
Why am I not surprised ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Last I heard, the Supreme Court ruled that the NSA could collect metadata and such.
The system is indeed stacked against us, the people.
From the court, to the congress, to the White House, to the law enforcement, to the press - their convergence behind the tyrannical regime spelled DOOM to the very concept of the United States of America.
I left USA more than 10 years ago due to my disgust of what had happened, and the more I see my country from afar, the more sad I'm becoming.
What the fuck is happening to America ?
Why the fuck my fellow Americans are allowing this to happen ?