Homomorphic Encryption: Theory & Applications

The goal of this chapter is to present a survey of homomorphic encryption techniques and their applications. After a detailed discussion on the introduction and motivation of the chapter, we present some basic concepts of cryptography. The fundamental theories of homomorphic encryption are then discussed with suitable examples. The chapter then provides a survey of some of the classical homomorphic encryption schemes existing in the current literature. Various applications and salient properties of homomorphic encryption schemes are then discussed in detail. The chapter then introduces the most important and recent research direction in the filed - fully homomorphic encryption. A significant number of propositions on fully homomorphic encryption is then discussed. Finally, the chapter concludes by outlining some emerging research trends in this exicting field of cryptography.Comment: Book Chapter accepted for publication in the book entitled: Theory and Practice of Cryptography and Network Security Protocols and Technologies, ISBN: 980-953-307-848-4, Sen, J. (Ed.), to be published by INTECH Publishers, Croatia. Expected month of publication: June 2013. This book chapter is a state of the art survey on homomorphic encryption mechanism