DNI Wants Research into Secure Multiparty Computation
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is soliciting proposals for research projects in secure multiparty computation:
Specifically of interest is computing on data belonging to different—potentially mutually distrusting—parties, which are unwilling or unable (e.g., due to laws and regulations) to share this data with each other or with the underlying compute platform. Such computations may include oblivious verification mechanisms to prove the correctness and security of computation without revealing underlying data, sensitive computations, or both.
My guess is that this is to perform analysis using data obtained from different surveillance authorities.
Subscribe to comments on this entry
JG4 • July 7, 2017 7:03 AM
Interestingly enough, this touches on one of the few key problems of the old blue marble of entropy maximization, which is something like scalability of trust. That problem is difficult enough without having a distribution of psychopaths and sociopaths at the key levers of power. The concept that Reagan expounded, “Trust but verify,” generally would benefit from greater access to the distrusted partner’s data.
A closely related key problem is conflict of interest. The more disturbing and unexpected conflicts of interest are between our present self and future selves, which applies to both individuals and groups. Politicians generally arbitrage conflicts of interest. If they weren’t liars, thieves and murderers, the results might be more positive.
I recall a discussion of homomorphic encryption, which I have been meaning to ask about. I had an almost-good idea for an application. The general concept was a method for maintaining an on-line library of books in a form that doesn’t violate copyright, but is text-searchable. Clive or other titans of the forum may have explicitly suggested this application.