
Essentially, this means you encrypt the data so that performing a mathematical operation on the encrypted information and then decrypting the result produces the same answer as performing an analogous operation on the unencrypted data.

The result (70) is then downloaded and decrypted to give us our answer (12).

The data is then sent to the cloud to be processed. The data is then encrypted so that 5 becomes 29 and 7 becomes 41. For instance, say we want to add 5 and 7 together. Homomorphic encryption is a method of encrypting data so that it can be analyzed without being decrypted, while still returning an encrypted result. Currently, encrypted data can be sent to and from a cloud provider’s data center, however, the servers that power that cloud can’t do any work on the data this way. Homomorphic encryption hopes to change encryption and data analysis. The encryption is used to protect the message from anyone who may capture it before it meets its destination. This is an age-old method that has made its way into current technology. This generally means that only the key holder may decipher the message. “A form of encryption which allows specific types of computations to be carried out on ciphertext and generate an encrypted result which, when decrypted, matches the result of operations performed on the plaintext.”Ĭommon encryption methods involved encrypting the data on one end, and using a “key” of some kind on the other to decrypt the message. The hot topic in the technology and cryptology world these days is homomorphic encryption.

Homomorphic encryption hopes to solve the problem of giving unencrypted data to a public cloud provider. Such operations include analyzing and mining large amounts of data in the cloud – especially when the data is sensitive in nature. While the cloud does provide a high level of security for certain tasks, there is a little left to be desired when it comes to other operations. Many organizations say one of the primary reasons they aren’t yet adopting the cloud is because of security.
