Fully Homomorphic Encryption is considered the “holy grail” of encryption. But right now it takes too much compute power to be used widely.
+ The Defense Advanced Research Agency awarded four research teams multimillion-dollar contracts to figure out how to build hardware and software stacks capable of cutting down the amount of time and power required to perform computations on encrypted data.
“That still left us with this massive compute overhead,” Rondeau said.
+ The four performers for DARPA’s Data Protection in Virtual Environments program aim to build silicon chips capable of supporting Fully Homomorphic Encryption, which enables users to compute and analyze data without exposing it to compromise by decrypting it. FHE still requires far too much compute overhead to be considered a practical option, so DPRIVE performers will create brand new chips specialized for FHE.
+ Still, as quantum computing technologies advance, FHE may become more important. Rondeau said the math behind FHE suggests it will be resistant to quantum computing advancements.
+ “How quantum computers operate do not tackle this particular type of problem well,” Rondeau said. “In fact, if you look at what [the National Institute for Standards and Technology] is doing to standardize and certify the quantum-resistant encryption schemes, they’re all based on this thing called lattice encryption, and that’s the core of homomorphic encryption as well.
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