4,083 research outputs found
Bounds for Visual Cryptography Schemes
In this paper, we investigate the best pixel expansion of the various models
of visual cryptography schemes. In this regard, we consider visual cryptography
schemes introduced by Tzeng and Hu [13]. In such a model, only minimal
qualified sets can recover the secret image and that the recovered secret image
can be darker or lighter than the background. Blundo et al. [4] introduced a
lower bound for the best pixel expansion of this scheme in terms of minimal
qualified sets. We present another lower bound for the best pixel expansion of
the scheme. As a corollary, we introduce a lower bound, based on an induced
matching of hypergraph of qualified sets, for the best pixel expansion of the
aforementioned model and the traditional model of visual cryptography realized
by basis matrices. Finally, we study access structures based on graphs and we
present an upper bound for the smallest pixel expansion in terms of strong
chromatic index
On Real-valued Visual Cryptographic Basis Matrices
Visual cryptography (VC) encodes an image into noise-like shares, which can be stacked to reveal a reduced quality version of the original. The problem with encrypting colour images is that they must undergo heavy pre-processing to reduce them to binary, entailing significant quality loss. This paper proposes VC that works directly on intermediate grayscale values per colour channel and demonstrates real-valued basis matrices for this purpose. The resulting stacked shares produce a clearer reconstruction than in binary VC, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first method posing no restrictions on colour values
while maintaining the ability to decrypt with human vision. Grayscale and colour images of differing entropies are encrypted using fuzzy OR and XOR, and their PSNR and structural similarities are compared with binary VC to demonstrate improved quality. It is compared with previous research and its advantages highlighted, notably in high quality reconstructions with minimal processing
SoK: Cryptographically Protected Database Search
Protected database search systems cryptographically isolate the roles of
reading from, writing to, and administering the database. This separation
limits unnecessary administrator access and protects data in the case of system
breaches. Since protected search was introduced in 2000, the area has grown
rapidly; systems are offered by academia, start-ups, and established companies.
However, there is no best protected search system or set of techniques.
Design of such systems is a balancing act between security, functionality,
performance, and usability. This challenge is made more difficult by ongoing
database specialization, as some users will want the functionality of SQL,
NoSQL, or NewSQL databases. This database evolution will continue, and the
protected search community should be able to quickly provide functionality
consistent with newly invented databases.
At the same time, the community must accurately and clearly characterize the
tradeoffs between different approaches. To address these challenges, we provide
the following contributions:
1) An identification of the important primitive operations across database
paradigms. We find there are a small number of base operations that can be used
and combined to support a large number of database paradigms.
2) An evaluation of the current state of protected search systems in
implementing these base operations. This evaluation describes the main
approaches and tradeoffs for each base operation. Furthermore, it puts
protected search in the context of unprotected search, identifying key gaps in
functionality.
3) An analysis of attacks against protected search for different base
queries.
4) A roadmap and tools for transforming a protected search system into a
protected database, including an open-source performance evaluation platform
and initial user opinions of protected search.Comment: 20 pages, to appear to IEEE Security and Privac
A novel quality assessment for visual secret sharing schemes
To evaluate the visual quality in visual secret sharing schemes, most of the existing metrics fail to generate fair and uniform quality scores for tested reconstructed images. We propose a new approach to measure the visual quality of the reconstructed image for visual secret sharing schemes. We developed an object detection method in the context of secret sharing, detecting outstanding local features and global object contour. The quality metric is constructed based on the object detection-weight map. The effectiveness of the proposed quality metric is demonstrated by a series of experiments. The experimental results show that our quality metric based on secret object detection outperforms existing metrics. Furthermore, it is straightforward to implement and can be applied to various applications such as performing the security test of the visual secret sharing process
Secret sharing schemes: Optimizing the information ratio
Secret sharing refers to methods used to distribute a secret value among a set of participants. This work deals with the optimization of two parameters regarding the efficiency of a secret sharing scheme: the information ratio and average information ratio. Only access structures (a special family of sets) on 5 and 6 participants will be considered. First, access structures with 5 participants will be studied, followed by the ones on 6 participants that are based on graphs. The main goal of the paper is to check existing lower bounds (and improve some of them) by using linear programs with the sage solver. Shannon information inequalities have been used to translate the polymatroid axioms into linear constraints
Making Code Voting Secure against Insider Threats using Unconditionally Secure MIX Schemes and Human PSMT Protocols
Code voting was introduced by Chaum as a solution for using a possibly
infected-by-malware device to cast a vote in an electronic voting application.
Chaum's work on code voting assumed voting codes are physically delivered to
voters using the mail system, implicitly requiring to trust the mail system.
This is not necessarily a valid assumption to make - especially if the mail
system cannot be trusted. When conspiring with the recipient of the cast
ballots, privacy is broken.
It is clear to the public that when it comes to privacy, computers and
"secure" communication over the Internet cannot fully be trusted. This
emphasizes the importance of using: (1) Unconditional security for secure
network communication. (2) Reduce reliance on untrusted computers.
In this paper we explore how to remove the mail system trust assumption in
code voting. We use PSMT protocols (SCN 2012) where with the help of visual
aids, humans can carry out addition correctly with a 99\% degree of
accuracy. We introduce an unconditionally secure MIX based on the combinatorics
of set systems.
Given that end users of our proposed voting scheme construction are humans we
\emph{cannot use} classical Secure Multi Party Computation protocols.
Our solutions are for both single and multi-seat elections achieving:
\begin{enumerate}[i)]
\item An anonymous and perfectly secure communication network secure against
a -bounded passive adversary used to deliver voting,
\item The end step of the protocol can be handled by a human to evade the
threat of malware. \end{enumerate} We do not focus on active adversaries
Dagstuhl News January - December 2011
"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic
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