A pillar of the Privacy Enhancing Technologies category, homomorphic encryption secures Data in Use by allowing computations to occur in the ciphertext domain
In today’s installment of our Enveil FAQ Series, we’re answering two frequently asked questions related to homomorphic encryption, a pillar of the Privacy Enhancing Technologies category:
What is homomorphic encryption (HE)?
I’ve read academic research on homomorphic encryption – are you a research firm or an HE library?
If you’d like to see more questions & answers, check out our full FAQ page.
What is homomorphic encryption?
By its most basic definition, homomorphic encryption (HE) secures Data in Use by allowing computations to occur in the encrypted or ciphertext domain. If encryption is a vault protecting sensitive data, traditional practice requires taking that data out of the vault every time it needs to be used or processed (perform a search, apply analytics/machine learning, etc.). This exposure leaves the data and the operation vulnerable. HE allows these actions to take place within the vault, ensuring the interaction and the corresponding results remain protected.
A focus of research for more than four decades for its transformative potential, computational barriers once kept HE relegated to the academic/research arena or some enigmatic government spaces. However, recent and continual breakthroughs have now made it practical for a wide-range of commercial and mission applications, taking HE from exclusive academic darling to commercial game changer. HE is often hailed as the 'holy grail' of cryptography for its paradigm-shifting potential to revolutionize how and where organizations can securely and privately leverage data assets. We are proud to bring that credence to life.
I’ve read academic research on homomorphic encryption – are you a research firm or an HE library?
Neither actually. We build solutions that creatively and efficiently leverage homomorphic encryption and other Privacy Enhancing Technologies to solve real business and mission problems. In contrast, HE research is focused on advancing the core mathematical HE cryptographic components. We applaud those doing HE research, and view their work as complementary to our work at Enveil.
There is a significant difference between an HE library and an HE-powered solution. You can think of an HE solution as the house, while an HE library is one of the raw materials, like brick or lumber. HE libraries provide the basic cryptographic components for enabling the capabilities and are often created and maintained by HE researchers, but it takes a lot of additional work, including software engineering, innovative algorithms, and enterprise integration features, to get a usable, commercial grade product. Vendors providing HE solutions have already built the house, often leveraging various HE libraries, so while some remodeling may be required to ensure that the solution addresses specific needs, the heavy lifting is done.
Enveil is a pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company protecting Data in Use. Enveil’s business-enabling and privacy-preserving capabilities change the paradigm of how and where organizations can leverage data to unlock value. Defining the transformative category of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Enveil’s award-winning ZeroReveal® solutions for secure data usage, collaboration, monetization, and Secure AI protect the content of the search, analytic, or model while it's being used or processed. Customers can extract insights, cross-match, search, analyze, and leverage AI across boundaries and silos at scale without exposing their interests and intent or compromising the security or ownership of the underlying data. A World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and Gartner Cool Vendor, Enveil is deployed and operational today, revolutionizing data usage in the global marketplace.
