Descripción del proyecto
Llevar la computación multipartita a un nuevo nivel de aplicaciones a gran escala
Como herramienta criptográfica, la computación multipartita (MPC, por sus siglas en inglés) permite que varias partes realicen cálculos utilizando sus datos combinados. Dado que las partes desconfían unas de otras, la MPC les permite calcular conjuntamente una función de forma que se preserve la confidencialidad de sus aportaciones. Esta herramienta suele emplearse en las subastas seguras o en la extracción de datos que preserve la privacidad. Aunque la eficacia de la MPC ha mejorado en los últimos años, su desarrollo ha tocado techo en cuanto a las posibles aplicaciones. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos SPEC cuestionará las hipótesis actuales de la investigación sobre MPC para llevarla al siguiente nivel. El objetivo es desarrollar técnicas y métodos novedosos para establecer unos protocolos de MPC seguros que permitan aplicaciones de MPC a gran escala.
Objetivo
MPC is a cryptographic technique that allows a set of mutually distrusting parties to compute any joint function of their private inputs in a way that preserves the confidentiality of the inputs and the correctness of the result. Examples of MPC applications include secure auctions, benchmarking, privacy-preserving data mining, etc.
In the last decade, the efficiency of MPC has improved significantly, especially with respect to evaluating functions expressed as Boolean and arithmetic circuits. These advances have allowed several companies worldwide to implement and include MPC solutions in their products.
Unfortunately, it now appears (and it’s partially confirmed by theoretical lower bounds) that we have reached a wall with respect to possible optimizations of current building blocks of MPC, which prevents MPC to be used in critical large-scale applications. I therefore believe that a radical paradigm-shift in MPC research is needed in order to make MPC truly practical.
With this project, I intend to take a step back, challenge current assumptions in MPC research and design novel MPC solutions. My hypothesis is that taking MPC to the next level requires more realistic modelling of the way that security, privacy and efficiency are defined and measured. By combining classic MPC techniques with research in neighbouring areas of computer science I will fulfill the aim of the project and in particular:
1) Understand the limitations of current abstract models for MPC and refine them to more precisely capture real world requirements in terms of security, privacy and efficiency.
2) Use the new models to guide the developments of the next generation of MPC protocols, going beyond current performances and therefore enabling large-scale applications.
3) Investigate the necessary privacy-utility trade-offs that parties undertake when participating in distributed computations and define MPC functionalities that encourage cooperation for rational parties.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
8000 Aarhus C
Dinamarca