Objective Modern cryptography is known for the introduction of public key cryptography, which has been widely applied in practice. However, the theory of cryptography provided additional powerful (and less intuitive) tools. One of its most attractive contributions is secure computation, also known as secure function evaluation - SFE, which allows multiple participants to implement a joint computation that, in real life, may only be implemented using a trusted party. The participants, each with its own private input, communicate without the help of any trusted party, and can compute any function without revealing any information about the inputs except for the value of the function. A classic example of such a computation is the “millionaires’ problem”, in which two millionaires want to find out who is richer, without revealing their actual worth. Thus far, secure computation techniques have rarely been applied in practice, and are typically considered to have mostly theoretical significance. In this research proposal we intend to build tools that translate these theoretical results into practical applications. Our goal is that secure computation solutions, which today are usually stated as mathematical theorems, will be available as tools usable by non-experts, similar to state-of-the-art tools for technologies such as public key encryption, linear programming, or data compression. The research will proceed in two directions: First, we will develop generic tools (essentially compilers) which translate functions defined using a high-level language to distributed programs that implement secure evaluation of the defined functions. We also expect that this effort will unearth many questions of theoretical interest, which we will investigate. Our other direction of research is the design of specialized, and highly efficient, solutions to key tasks which have conflicting goals of respecting privacy and enabling legitimate usage of data. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitycryptography Keywords cryptography multi-party computation privacy secure function evaluation Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-PE5 - ERC Starting Grant - Materials and Synthesis Call for proposal ERC-2007-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Coordinator BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY Address Bar ilan university campus 52900 Ramat gan Israel See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Estelle Waise (Ms.) Principal investigator Benny Pinkas (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window EU contribution € 518 371,43 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY Israel EU contribution € 518 371,43 Address Bar ilan university campus 52900 Ramat gan See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Estelle Waise (Ms.) Principal investigator Benny Pinkas (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA Participation ended Israel EU contribution € 87 628,57 Address Abba khushy blvd mount carmel 31905 Haifa See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Suzan Aminpour (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window
