Encryption technology is being considered to be a
good solution of many online evils. Encryption can protect
individuals and companies from cyber threats, intellectual property
thefts, corporate and cyber espionage and so on. Encryption can also
help in protecting the intellectual property.
Protection of a software source code is considered
to be a tedious job. The problem is that if we encrypt the source cod
of software it may hinder its functionality and may render it
useless. Sanjam Garg, a graduate of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi, has solved this problem and won the 2013 Doctoral
Dissertation Award for developing a technique to protect such source
codes.
He invented
a breakthrough cryptography technology that enables the first secure
solution to the problem of making computer programme code
“unintelligible” while preserving its functionality. This
problem, known as software obfuscation, conceals the programme's
purpose or its logic in order to prevent tampering, deter reverse
engineering, or pose a challenge to readers of the source code.
Garg described new mathematical tools that serve as
key ingredients for transforming a program into a “jigsaw puzzle”
of encrypted pieces. Corresponding to each input is a unique set of
puzzle pieces that, when assembled; reveal the output of the
programme. Security of the obfuscated programme hinges on the fact
that illegitimate combinations of the puzzle pieces do not reveal
anything.
