Researchers Demonstrate They Can Steal Data During Homomorphic Encryption

Homomorphic encryption allows third parties and third-party technologies to conduct operations on encrypted data. Homomorphic encryption is appealing because it preserves data privacy but allows users to make use of the data. It is considered a next-generation data security technology, but researchers have identified a vulnerability that could allow threat actors to steal data even as it is being encrypted.

A group of academics from the North Carolina State University and Dokuz Eylul University have demonstrated “the first side-channel attack on homomorphic encryption” that could be exploited to leak data as the encryption process is underway.