US 10,484,168 B2Granted

Methods and systems for obfuscating data and computations defined in a secure distributed transaction ledger

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsDaniel A. Ford, Irwin O. Reyes, Rajesh Narayanan

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Abstract

Aspects of the present invention provide systems and methods that facilitate computations that are publically defined while assuring the confidentiality of the input data provided, the generated output data, or both using homomorphic encryption on the contents of the secure distributed transaction ledger. Full homomorphic encryption schemes protect data while still enabling programs to accept it as input. In embodiments, using a homomorphic encryption data input into a secure distributed transaction ledger allows a consumer to employ highly motivated entities with excess compute capability to perform calculations on the consumer's behalf while assuring data confidentiality, correctness, and integrity as it propagates through the network.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for facilitating computation of provided data by a third party without exposing the provided data, the method comprising:

obfuscating a set of data using homomorphic encryption;
publishing a request message to one or more nodes which participate in a decentralized computational network that maintains a publicly available block chain to make the request message accessible to a plurality of the nodes, the request message comprising:
the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption, in which the obfuscated set of data is viewable by one or more untrusted participants in the decentralized computational network;
a request for one or more participants in the decentralized computational network to perform one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption;
and
an identifier of a program that performs at least one operation of the one or more computation operations, the identifier comprising an address to program code in the block chain;
and
responsive to identifying in the publicly available block chain a response message that comprises results data obtained as a result of the one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data:
extracting the results data from the response message;
and
performing a reverse homomorphic transform on the results data to obtain unobfuscated results data.

8 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium or non-transitory computer-readable media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes steps to be performed comprising:

obfuscating a set of data using homomorphic encryption;
and publishing a request message to one or more nodes which participate in a decentralized computational network that maintains a publicly available block chain to make the request message accessible to a plurality of the nodes, the request message comprising:
the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption, in which the obfuscated set of data is viewable by one or more untrusted participants in the decentralized computational network;
a request for one or more participants in the decentralized computational network to perform one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption;
and
an identifier of a program that performs at least one operation of the one or more computation operations, the identifier comprising an address to program code in the block chain;
and
responsive to identifying in the publicly available block chain a response message that comprises results data obtained as a result of the one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data:
extracting the results data from the response message;
and
performing a reverse homomorphic transform on the results data to obtain unobfuscated results data.

8 more elements

A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;
one or more interfaces, communicatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors, that provides access to one or more networks;
and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium or non-transitory computer-readable media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, causes steps to be performed comprising:
obfuscating a set of data using homomorphic encryption;
and
publishing a request message to one or more nodes which participate in a decentralized computational network that maintains a publicly available block chain to make the request message accessible to a plurality of the nodes, the request message comprising:
the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption, in which the obfuscated set of data is viewable by one or more untrusted participants in the decentralized computational network;
a request for one or more participants in the decentralized computational network to perform one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data that has been encrypted using homomorphic encryption;
and
an identifier of a program that performs at least one operation of the one or more computation operations, the identifier comprising an address to program code in the block chain;
and
responsive to identifying in the publicly available block chain a response message that comprises results data obtained as a result of the one or more computation operations using the obfuscated set of data:
extracting the results data from the response message;
and
performing a reverse homomorphic transform on the results data to obtain unobfuscated results data.

13 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/725,347Filed 29 May 2015 · continuation in part
Priority: 2 Mar 2015
Published: US 2016/0260095 A18 Sep 2016
Granted: 19 Nov 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

H04L 9/008
Cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols: involving homomorphic…
G06F 21/64
Protecting data: protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
H04L 67/104
In which an application is distributed across nodes in the network: peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
H04L
Digital communication

Family

Application14/635,577Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 2 Mar 2015
US 2016/0261404 A1Pre-grant publication · published 8 Sep 2016
US 2016/0260095 A1Published application
US 10,484,168 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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