IBM’s new FHE toolkit makes iPhone, MacBook data hacking tougher

Apple is usually known for its privacy and security algorithms that give hackers a tough time cracking iPhones and MacBooks. However, IBM is making it even tougher for hackers to gain access to certain information with a new toolkit that makes it easier to implement fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) in iOS and macOS apps. The toolkit is available from GitHub, however, IBM duly mentions that these are not perfect or the final product.

“I should point out that these are not perfect or final. We wanted to quickly put them out to get the technology into the hands of early adopters who want to make these concepts less abstract and more concrete as we look to build up a community of users and use cases,” states the IBM blog post.

But what is FHE? As explained in the post, usually when files are transferred online they are encrypted but when they reach the destination and are being worked upon, they move into a decryption phase. This is where FHE comes in and essentially allows the manipulation or modification of files while being encrypted. “In conjunction with other techniques, FHE also makes it possible to selectively restrict decryption capabilities, so people can see only the portions of a file that they are entitled to, and are necessary for them to do their work,” adds the post.

Where this can be used, FHE is said to be used by those companies which are regulated and make use of private and controversial data such as finance or health care.

IBM notes that while the toolkit is only for iPhones and MacBook devices, it will come to Android and Linux-based systems as well.