Previously we talked about Zero Knowledge Proofs as an emerging way to avoid having to trust large organizations who may intentionally misuse or unintentionally compromise our data. Secure Multiparty Computation (SMPC) is another cryptographic approach, like Zero Knowledge Proofs, that had been kicking around in academia for a number of decades before our messy and hyperconnected world found practical applications for it. Secure Multiparty Computation is a way for a number of parties to work together to solve a problem without revealing the information used in the computation to the other parties. It is an approach seen as more straightforward and less computationally expensive than alternatives i.e. homomorphic encryption.
read moreJanuary 25, 2021
It was typical of renaissance and early-modern scientists to use anagrams or proto-hash functions of their scientific discoveries. The anagram of a Latin sentence would be published as a way of staking a claim to a scientific discovery that still required further research or results.
read moreNovember 20, 2020
These are anxious times. For the worriers among us 2020 has been a bumper year. We’ve had a global pandemic and the rise of Fascism in democratic countries. Not content with this, the techno-literate fretful have added ‘Quantum Supremacy’ to the list of concerns....
read moreJanuary 21, 2019
A recent NIST paper recommending which steps to take to prepare for the advent of quantum computers proposes that users of cryptography look to achieve 'crypto agility' as soon as possible. The idea was further expanded by Gartner in a recent research note, and now crops up regularly. It's sometimes described as 'crypto-agnosticism', but what does it mean, and how does one achieve it?
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