IBM Launches Test Service Using 'Holy Grail' of Data Privacy Technology

Tech giant IBM announced a trial service for a privacy tech called fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), designed to vastly reduce the likelihood of sensitive data being exposed.

FHE is an emerging technology – often described as the "holy grail" of encryption – designed to allow data to stay encrypted when being processed or analyzed in cloud or third-party environments.
IBM said last week its new service, developed in-house, will allow clients to start experimenting with technology to improve the privacy of their internal IT architectures.
“While current encryption techniques allow data to be protected during storage and in transit, data must be decrypted while it is being processed or analyzed – creating a window of opportunity where data is more vulnerable to theft or exposure,” said IBM.
Data leaks have become a major issue for enterprises. One making headlines this week saw personal details of clients of cryptocurrency hardware wallet maker Ledger exposed on an online forum.
Research and advisory company, Gartner predicts that by 2025 at least 20% of businesses will be budgeting for programs that require homomorphic encryption, up from less than 1% currently.

Also see: Why Ledger Kept All That Customer Data in the First Place

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