Sovereign information sharing service

• US 20070240224A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Agrawal, Rakesh, Asonov, Dmitri, Kantarcioglu, Murat, Li, Yaping
• Granted Patent: US 8,607,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24532 of parallel queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries

Abstract

Embodiments herein provide a method, system, etc. for a sovereign information sharing service. More specifically, a method for secure distributed query processing comprises storing data tables from at least one data provider in at least one first computer comprising a sovereign server. Next, encrypted input and output of the data tables is performed between the server and a second computer. Following this, join operations are computed, comprising determining whether arbitrary join predicates yield matches within the data tables; and encrypted results of the join operations are output. The method minimizes possible information leakage from interaction between the server and the second computer by making observations and inferences from patterns of the outputting of the encrypted results.

Claims

1. A method for secure distributed query processing, comprising:

storing data tables from at least one data provider in at least one first computer comprising a sovereign server;

performing encrypted input and output of said data tables between said server and a second computer;

computing join operations, comprising determining whether arbitrary join predicates yield matches within said data tables;

outputting encrypted results of said join operations; and

minimizing possible information leakage from interaction between said server and said second computer by making observations and inferences from patterns of said outputting of said encrypted results.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said outputting of said encrypted results comprises a processing time that is independent of whether said arbitrary join predicates yield said matches.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising performing additional CPU cycles to increase said processing time.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said outputting of said encrypted results comprises outputting a size of said results that is independent of whether said arbitrary join predicates yield said matches.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said outputting of said encrypted results comprises outputting decoys.

6. A method for secure distributed query processing, comprising:

performing encrypted input and output of data tables between a server and a secure computer;

performing queries of said data tables to produce results;

modifying said results by at least one of increasing a size of said results, increasing a processing time of said results, and encrypting said results to produce modified results; and

outputting said modified results.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said modifying of said results is independent of whether data matches corresponding to said queries exist within said data tables.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein said increasing of said size of said results comprises adding decoys to said results.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein said increasing of said processing time of said results comprises performing additional CPU cycles.

10. A system for secure distributed query processing, comprising:

at least one first computer comprising a sovereign server adapted to store data tables from at least one data provider; and

a second computer operatively connected to said first computer, wherein said second computer is adapted to perform encrypted input and output of said data tables with said first computer, compute join operations to determine whether arbitrary join predicates yield matches within said data tables, and output encrypted results of said join operations, and

wherein said second computer is adapted to output a fixed size of said encrypted results during a fixed processing time.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein said fixed size of said encrypted results during said fixed processing time is adapted to minimize information leakage from interaction between said first computer and said second computer.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said information leakage comprises observations and inferences from patterns of said encrypted results.

13. The system according to claim 10, wherein said fixed size of said encrypted results is independent of whether said arbitrary join predicates yield said matches.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein said fixed size of said encrypted results comprises decoys.

15. The system according to claim 10, wherein said fixed processing time is independent of whether said arbitrary join predicates yield said matches.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein said fixed processing time comprises additional CPU cycles.

17. A system for secure distributed query processing, comprising:

a secure computer adapted to perform encrypted input and output of data tables with a server, perform queries of said data tables to produce results, modify said results to produce modified results, and output said modified results,

wherein said modified results comprise at least one of a fixed size and a fixed processing time.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein said modified results are independent of whether data matches corresponding to said queries exist within said data tables.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein said modified results comprise decoys.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein said modified results comprise additional CPU cycles.