Computing On Encrypted Databases Without Ever Decrypting Them

http://j.mp/w0NLE3 (Forbes)

  "Now the Google- and Citigroup-funded work of three MIT scientists
   holds the promise of solving that long-nagging issue in some of the
   computing world's most common applications. CryptDB, a piece of
   database software the researchers presented in a paper (PDF here) at
   the Symposium on Operating System Principles in October, allows users
   to send queries to an encrypted set of data and get almost any answer
   they need from it without ever decrypting the stored information, a
   trick that keeps the info safe from hackers, accidental loss and even
   snooping administrators. And while it's not the first system to offer
   that kind of magically flexible cryptography, it may be the first
   practical one, taking a fraction of a second to produce an answer
   where other systems that perform the same encrypted functions would
   require thousands of years."

- - -

CryptDB: Protecting Condentiality with
Encrypted Query Processing

http://j.mp/u1INfV (MIT [PDF])

  "It works by executing SQL queries over encrypted data using a
   collection of efcient SQL-aware encryption schemes. CryptDB can
   also chain encryption keys to user passwords, so that a data item
   can be decrypted only by using the password of one of the users
   with access to that data. As a result, a database administrator
   never gets access to decrypted data, and even if all servers are
   compromised, an adversary cannot decrypt the data of any user who
   is not logged in."

- - -

Potentially a *very* big deal.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com

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