Mahmoud Sayed defends his PhD
Mahmoud Sayed has successfully defended his PhD thesis with the title: Homomorphic Encryption Based Obfuscated Complex Queries System
His work focused on a novel technique for implementing a privacy-preserving software application on remote untrusted server using a modified construction of the Fully Homomorphic Encryption of The Torus. With traditional encryption, the users are able to hide their data from the cloud server operator, but they cannot process it on the cloud without decrypting them. Homomorphic Encryption allows the cloud server to operate on encrypted data, but it does not hide the algorithm itself. With the proposed approach approach, the users are able to fully utilize the full computation power of cloud servers without revealing their data or processing algorithm: protect the data and the procedure.
In addition, the proposed methodology allows also processing plain un-encrypted data on the cloud while hiding the algorithm and the result. This extends the list of applications to an interesting realm: GPS directions from online maps without revealing the traveler’s destination to the service provider, searching online without revealing the search criterial to the search engine, and much more!
The examination committee consisted of:
| Role | Examiner |
|---|---|
| External Examiner | Amr Youssef, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University |
| Internal Examiner | Ashraf Matrawy, School of Computer Science, 杏吧原创 University |
| Member of Joint Institute | David Knox, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University of Ottawa |
| Member of Department | Mohamed Atia, Systems & Computer Engineering, 杏吧原创 University |
| Thesis Supervisor | Mostafa Taha, Systems & Computer Engineering, 杏吧原创 University |
| Chair of Defence | Xiaoyu Wang, Electronics Engineering, 杏吧原创 University |
The defence committee nominated Mahmoud’s work for a university medal.
Congratulations to Dr. Mahmoud Sayed!
