Steven Bellovin - 3/29/04
AT&T Labs Research
slides (ps, pdf)
videorecording (mpg)

PRIVACY-ENHANCED SEARCHES USING ENCRYPTED BLOOM FILTERS

It is often necessary for two or more or more parties that do not fully trust each other to selectively share data. We propose a search scheme based on Bloom filters and Pohlig-Hellman encryption. A semi-trusted third party can transform one party's search queries to a form suitable for querying the other party's database, in such a way that neither the third party nor the database owner can see the original query. Furthermore, the encryption keys used to construct the Bloom filters are not shared with this third party. Provision can be made for third-party ``warrant servers'', as well as ``censorship sets'' that limit the data to be shared.

Bio

Steven M. Bellovin received a B.A. degree from Columbia University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While a graduate student, he helped create netnews; for this, he and the other perpetrators were award the 1995 Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award. He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1982. Despite the fact that he has not changed jobs, he is now at AT&T Labs Research, working on networks, security, and why the two don't get along, as well as related public policy questions. He is an AT&T Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Bellovin is currently the co-director of the Security Area of the IETF and, in particular, has authored RFC3514, "The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header" also known as the "Evil Bit".

Bellovin is the co-author of ``Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker'', and holds several patents on cryptographic and network protocols. He served on National Research Council study committees on information systems trustworthiness and the privacy implications of authentication technologies; he was also a member of the information technology subcommittee of an NRC study group on science versus terrorism. He was a member of the Internet Architecture Board from 1996-2002; he is currently the co-director of the Security Area of the IETF.