Secure two-party computation, called secure function evaluation (SFE),
enables two mutually mistrusting parties, the client and server, to
evaluate an arbitrary function on their respective private inputs while
revealing nothing but the result. Originally the technique was
considered to be too inefficient for practical privacy-preserving
applications, but in recent years rapid speed-up in computers and
communication networks, algorithmic improvements, automatic generation,
and optimizations have enabled their application in many scenarios.
The author offers an extensive overview of the most practical and
efficient modern techniques used in the design and implementation of
secure computation and related protocols. After an introduction that
sets secure computation in its larger context of other privacy-enhancing
technologies such as secure channels and trusted computing, he covers
the basics of practically efficient secure function evaluation, circuit
optimizations and constructions, hardware-assisted garbled circuit
protocols, and the modular design of efficient SFE protocols.
The goal of the author's research is to use algorithm engineering
methods to engineer efficient secure protocols, both as a generic tool
and for solving practical applications, and he achieves an excellent
balance between the theory and applicability. The book is essential for
researchers, students and practitioners in the area of applied
cryptography and information security who aim to construct practical
cryptographic protocols for privacy-preserving real-world applications.
