Cryptographic Proofs of Integrity

Trends like cloud computing, big data, and social networks have revolutionized our society, causing a gradual migration of our day to day lives to the web. We rely on web providers to store and process our data, draw information and news from social networks, and nowadays also use distributed blockchains as financial and contractual instruments. In this reality, the world of information security currently faces unprecedented challenges, from preserving the privacy and resources of individuals to protecting the stability of organizations and democratic institutions.

This proposal addresses one such central concern, which is verifying the integrity of data and computation in scenarios that involve web entities that we cannot fully trust. Our focus is on developing cryptographic proofs of integrity to handle these scenarios. We study proofs systems with various desirable properties, such as zero knowledge, succinctness, and minimal interaction. We aim toward solutions with a mathematical proof of security based on standard computational assumptions.