Domestic researchers are developing a cutting-edge security "accelerator" technology that will allow them to safely receive and process information without re-identification procedures by sending encrypted information as is, breaking away from the conventional method of sending and processing information requiring security.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 16th that it is researching fully homomorphic encryption hardware accelerator technology that can be applied to machine learning and other fields while ensuring privacy by encrypting data.

Once this technology is developed, it is expected to open the way for data requiring security, such as medical, financial, public, and defense data, to be directly applied in an encrypted state to various convergence services.

Fully homomorphic encryption technology is called a 4th generation encryption technology because it has the advantage of being able to process encrypted data as is without additional decryption or other processes, and is attracting attention as a next-generation encryption technology that is safe even in quantum computing.

Since existing encryption technology cannot process encrypted data directly, it uses a secret key to decrypt (re-identify) the data, that is, convert it to the original information and then process it. There was a limitation that it had to be re-encrypted and transmitted.

In this case, there is a disadvantage that not only the secret key but also the original information will be exposed. Therefore, it was not suitable for processing data containing security information.

The fully homomorphic encryption acceleration processing technology currently under development by ETRI is characterized by the fact that, unlike existing technologies, it will develop an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) that can perform calculations on encrypted data with a large arithmetic word size.

In addition, it is characterized by the fact that data can be processed or combined with other services in an encrypted state without the re-identification process, which is an advantage of fully homomorphic encryption, and that it also guarantees security that the encryption will not be broken even in quantum computing.

Therefore, the problem of requiring a lot of time to process data that has grown due to encryption will be solved by developing a hardware-based fully homomorphic encryption acceleration technology.

The research team is currently developing this technology with the goal of significantly reducing the problem of slow processing performance by up to 10,000 times compared to the time it takes for a CPU to process encrypted data.

ETRI announced that if this technology is developed in the future, it will produce hardware accelerator chipsets, accelerators built into data servers, libraries for boards, and application software for artificial intelligence.

Accelerator boards equipped with chipsets that will be completed through technological development can be installed in servers such as cloud data centers.

The research team explained that this technology development was possible because ETRI possessed the original technology from the development of prior technologies such as 'HW high-speed processing element technology for homomorphic encryption' and 'cryptographic database query-response technology'.

In addition, ETRI's Seoul SW-SoC Convergence R&BD Center possesses the technology and basic capabilities necessary for accelerator development, including application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), systems-on-chips (SoCs), and device development in the security field.

ETRI Na Jung-chan Seoul SW-SThe head of the OC Convergence R&BD Center said, “It is very meaningful that we have started researching this promising technology early on. We will develop this technology to a world-class level and contribute to our country leading the next-generation security technology.”

The technology to be developed is planned to be transferred to cloud computing service companies, DBMS companies, fabless companies, and server-mounted homomorphic encryption accelerator developers in the future.

This technology is being promoted until 2024 as part of the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Development of HW-supported Privacy-Guaranteed High-Speed Processing Technology for Encrypted Data' project, and Naver Corporation, NeoWine Co., Ltd., Tmax Tivero Co., Ltd., Sungkyunkwan University, Pohang University of Science and Technology, and Inha University are participating.

As part of the 'K-Cyber Defense Promotion Strategy,' the Ministry of Science and ICT has established a plan to develop data security technologies for safe data utilization and secure safety technologies for the entire data life cycle, including pseudonymization and anonymization of personal information and data combination, in accordance with the expansion of data storage, management, and distribution.