"ALGORITHMS: IBM Encryption Breakthrough Secures Cloud Computing"

Today databases are stored as plaintext, available to anyone gaining access which often results in identity theft. IBM's new smarter way to handle sensitive information is to encrypt queries, encrypt the database and search it in its encrypted form. Impossible until now, IBM now claims "homomorphic" encryption allows data to be searched, sorted and processed without decrypting it. Look for homomorphic encryption to be deployed in cloud computers within five years. R.C.J.

The world's first encryption scheme that allows you to search, sort and process data without first decrypting it was recently discovered at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center. As the perfect companion to cloud computing, IBM's new encryption technique allows data to remain stored as encoded cypertext while it is being searched, making online access to cloud computer databases totally secure, unlike today where data is vulnerable while it is stored in the clouds. An optimized version, now under development, will be deployed in cloud computing and other security conscious applications by 2012, according to this story.
Text: http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Technology-For-Change/IBM-Encryption-Breakthrough-Could-Secure-Cloud-Computing/