Emerging Technologies
Homomorphic Encryption
Definition
Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that allows computation to be performed on ciphertext, thus generating an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches the result of the operations as if they had been performed on the plaintext.
Why It Matters
This is a "holy grail" of cryptography. It would allow for secure cloud computing, where a cloud provider could process a user's sensitive data without ever being able to see the data itself. This would solve many data privacy concerns.
Contextual Example
A user could send their encrypted financial data to a cloud service. The service could perform calculations (e.g., calculate their taxes) on the encrypted data and send back an encrypted result. The user is the only one who can decrypt the final result.
Common Misunderstandings
- While theoretically possible for many years, practical and efficient homomorphic encryption schemes are still an active area of research.
- "Fully homomorphic encryption" allows for arbitrary computations, while "partially homomorphic encryption" only allows for certain types of operations (e.g., only addition or only multiplication).