Secure Computation: Part I

This course will discuss about how using various cryptographic primitives, one can do computation on distributed and sensitive data, also known as secure multi-party computation (MPC), which is one of the most fundamental problems in cryptography as well as distributed computing.

The need for distributed computation on private data arises in several real-world applications that require computations involving sensitive data from two or more mutually distrusting entities. Consider the following example, which is one of the latest applications of secure computation:  The Earth is orbited by thousands of man-made satellites and several thousands of orbital debris. The growing number of satellites and space debris orbiting the planet increases the danger of collisions. And this is not a hypothetical scenario, as several such “high-profile” collisions have been reported in the recent past. Given the expensive cost of satellites, the host countries would like to avoid collision. A collision can only be predicted if the detailed orbit information of the individual satellites is known.  However, such information can be highly sensitive and in fact, it can even be a national secret.  So, what is needed here is a way to determine whether two satellites are about to clash with each other based on the detailed locations of the satellites, but without the need of disclosing the locations of the satellites to other host countries.