Safeguarding Secrets: Homomorphic Encryption for the Curious Mind

Sunday, July 14, 2024: 1:00 pm (Tobin 201/202): Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is an emerging, privacy-enhancing technology that enables computation on encrypted data without the need to decrypt it. FHE-enabled products and services have the pote...

Sunday, July 14, 2024: 1:00 pm (Tobin 201/202): Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is an emerging, privacy-enhancing technology that enables computation on encrypted data without the need to decrypt it. FHE-enabled products and services have the potential for securing user data from mass collection by tech giants and law enforcement. FHE uses arithmetic operations (addition and multiplication) as blocks for building arithmetic circuits. Using these, a third party can perform complex tasks on encrypted client data, for example, running diagnostic algorithms on medical imagery, without client data ever being revealed to the party providing this service. This talk will cover the history of homomorphic encryption, where the state-of-the-art is today, what the remaining gaps are, and why we should all advocate for advances in fundamental FHE research.

Vikram Saraph