Homomorphic Encryption
Noun · Security & Infosec
Definitions
An encryption scheme that allows computation on encrypted data without decrypting it first — the result, when decrypted, matches the result of performing the same operations on the plaintext. Enables privacy-preserving cloud computing but is still orders of magnitude slower than plaintext computation.
In plain English: Encryption that lets you do math on data without decrypting it first, so the computer processing it never sees the actual data.
Example: "With homomorphic encryption, the cloud service processes your medical data without ever seeing the unencrypted records."
Related Terms
- Encryption
- Steganography
- PKI
- zero-knowledge proof
- HIPAA
- Confidential Computing
- Public Key Cryptography
- Key Derivation Function
- Post-Quantum Cryptography
- Cleartext
- Crypto Agility
- Cryptanalysis
- Cryptojacking Attack
- Data Masking
- DES
- End-to-End Encryption
- Entropy Analysis
- GnuPG
- Hash Extension Attack
- Information Disclosure
- Key Rotation
- Keystroke Injection
- PBKDF2
- Perfect Forward Secrecy
- S/MIME
- Aggregation Attack
- Blowfish
- Cipher Block Chaining
- Ciphertext Feedback
- Data Destruction
- K-Anonymity
- L-Diversity
- Post-Quantum