Transparent decryption

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Transparent decryption is a method of decrypting data which unavoidably produces evidence that the decryption operation has taken place. [1] The idea is to prevent the covert decryption of data. In particular, transparent decryption protocols allow a user Alice to share with Bob the right to access data, in such a way that Bob may decrypt at a time of his choosing, but only while simultaneously leaving evidence for Alice of the fact that decryption occurred. Transparent decryption supports privacy, because this evidence alerts data subjects to the fact that information about them has been decrypted and disincentivises data misuse. [2]

Contents

Applications

Transparent decryption has been proposed for several systems where there is a need to simultaneously achieve accountability and secrecy. For example:

Implementation

In transparent decryption, the decryption key is distributed among a set of agents (called trustees); they use their key share only if the required transparency conditions have been satisfied. Typically, the transparency condition can be formulated as the presence of the decryption request in a distributed ledger. [2]

Alternative solutions

Besides transparent decryption, some other techniques have been proposed for achieving law enforcement while preserving privacy.

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References

  1. Cheval, Vincent; Moreira, José; Ryan, Mark (2023-04-16). "Automatic verification of transparency protocols (extended version)". arXiv: 2303.04500 [cs.CR].
  2. 1 2 3 Ryan, Mark D. (2017). "Making Decryption Accountable". In Stajano, Frank; Anderson, Jonathan; Christianson, Bruce; Matyáš, Vashek (eds.). Security Protocols XXV. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 10476. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 93–98. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71075-4_11. ISBN   978-3-319-71074-7 . Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  3. J. Kroll, E. Felten, and D. Boneh, Secure protocols for accountable warrant execution , 2014
  4. Nuñez, David; Agudo, Isaac; Lopez, Javier (2019). "Escrowed decryption protocols for lawful interception of encrypted data". IET Information Security. 13 (5): 498–507. doi:10.1049/iet-ifs.2018.5082. ISSN   1751-8717.
  5. Li, Meng; Chen, Yifei; Lal, Chhagan; Conti, Mauro; Alazab, Mamoun; Hu, Donghui (2023-01-01). "Eunomia: Anonymous and Secure Vehicular Digital Forensics Based on Blockchain". IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing. 20 (1): 225–241. doi:10.1109/TDSC.2021.3130583. ISSN   1545-5971.
  6. Idan, Lihi; Feigenbaum, Joan (2022-07-21). "PRShare: A Framework for Privacy-preserving, Interorganizational Data Sharing". ACM Trans. Priv. Secur. 25 (4): 29:1–29:38. doi:10.1145/3531225. ISSN   2471-2566.
  7. Frankle, Jonathan; Park, Sunoo; Shaar, Daniel; Goldwasser, Shafi; Weitzner, Daniel (2018). "Practical Accountability of Secret Processes". USENIX Security Symposium: 657–674. ISBN   978-1-939133-04-5.