Homomorphic Encryption Enables Data and Algorithm Confidentiality for Remote Monitoring and Control: An Application to Data Center Systems

Abstract

The design of intelligent algorithms used for device monitoring and control can be costly and is an investment that must be protected against reverse engineering by competitors. An algorithm can be safeguarded by running remotely from the cloud instead of locally on the equipment hardware. However, such a setup requires that sensitive data is sent from the device to the cloud. Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is an emerging technology that offers a solution to this problem since it enables computation on encrypted data. A cloud service using FHE can protect its proprietary algorithms while simultaneously offering customer data confidentiality. The computational overhead for the technology is, however, still very high. This work reports on a practical investigation of using FHE for data center remote control problems: What applications are feasible today? And at what cost?