Protecting privacy by splitting trust

Placeholder Show Content

Abstract/Contents

Abstract
In this dissertation, we construct two systems that protect privacy by splitting trust among multiple parties, so that the failure of any one, whether benign or malicious, does not cause a catastrophic privacy failure for the system as a whole. The first system, called Prio, allows a company to collect aggregate statistical data about its users without learning any individual user's personal information. The second, called Riposte, is a system for metadata-hiding communication that allows its users to communicate over an insecure network without revealing who is sending messages to whom. Both systems defend against malicious behavior using zero-knowledge proofs on distributed data, a cryptographic tool that we develop from a new type of probabilistically checkable proof. The two systems that we construct maintain their security properties in the face of an attacker who can control the entire network, an unlimited number of participating users, and any proper subset of the servers that comprise the system. These systems split trust in the sense that, as long as an attacker cannot compromise all of the participating servers, the system provides "best-possible" protection of the confidentiality of user data. Through the design, implementation, and deployment of these systems, we show that it is possible for us to enjoy the benefits of modern computing while protecting the privacy of our data.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2019; ©2019
Publication date 2019; 2019
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Corrigan-Gibbs, Henry Nathaniel
Degree supervisor Boneh, Dan, 1969-
Thesis advisor Boneh, Dan, 1969-
Thesis advisor Reingold, Omer
Thesis advisor Zaharia, Matei
Degree committee member Reingold, Omer
Degree committee member Zaharia, Matei
Associated with Stanford University, Computer Science Department.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Henry Corrigan-Gibbs.
Note Submitted to the Computer Science Department.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2019 by Henry Nathaniel Corrigan-Gibbs
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Also listed in

Loading usage metrics...