Excerpt:
When the impact of a relatively unfamiliar technology sounds too good to be true, it’s natural to question those claims. Homomorphic encryption has been described as the ‘holy grail’ of encryption for its unique ability to allow users to leverage data in the encrypted domain (in ciphertext) the same way they would in an unencrypted manner (in plaintext). In today’s data-driven environment, this ability to use and extract value from data without sacrificing privacy or security is a game changer — so significant in fact that upon first exposure, it is frequently treated with skepticism: if it’s so transformative, why isn’t everyone using it?
To understand the power of homomorphic encryption and where it can (and is) being utilized today, we need to look back and level up. Homomorphic encryption, or HE, has been the subject of academic and corporate research efforts for decades. From the earliest days, the power of the technology was clear; the practicality, however, was another matter entirely. Performing computations using HE once took hours or even days, effectively closing that door for business uses. Continual breakthroughs over the last decade have rewritten the story, enabling HE to be leveraged for a broad range of use cases, some of which we'll highlight later.
Beyond the progression of the technology itself, market drivers such as regulatory and policy advances and the proliferation of global data sources and silos have made the secure and private use of data more critical than ever. Organizations must be able to extract value from data sources across boundaries without increasing risk. This has driven interest and exposure for a family of technologies known as Privacy Enhancing Technologies, grouped together for their ability to preserve, enable, and enhance the privacy and security of data throughout its lifecycle. [...]
To highlight the impact of this technology, let’s explore five key business use cases for HE today:
Homomorphic encryption is only beginning to show its value for business and government organizations. The technology’s unique ability to protect data while it’s being utilized has the potential to shift the way we use data on a broad scale by expanding the field of usable data sources and ensuring privacy and security are prioritized whenever and wherever data is leveraged. As a foundational pillar of the Privacy Enhancing Technology family, HE is nearing its breakout moment. Business leaders who want to be ahead of the privacy and security curve need to pay close attention.
Read full TechSpective article here.