Duality Technologies, a provider of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs), has contracted with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a privacy-preserving Machine Learning (ML) capability. The technology can train models on encrypted data from multiple sources, according to a statement by the company. The DARPA contract will also support research into cyber threat intelligence sharing – also based on Homomorphic Encryption, according to Duality.

The capabilities developed under the contract will be applied to researching genomic susceptibility to severe COVID-19 symptoms in a manner which preserves individual privacy, according to Duality.

The development is based on Homomorphic Encryption (HE), a privacy-enhancing technology that allows multiple parties to analyze encrypted data and gain insights without exposing Personally Identifiable Information (PII), says Duality.

Duality is working in partnership with Harvard Medical School and Two Six Labs, a research and development company in the field of data science and cybersecurity, to support Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) related to COVID-19 research, according to the company.

DARPA has previously supported research and development in HE, sponsoring the establishment of PALISADE, the open-source HE library co-founded by Dr. Kurt Rohloff with Dr. Yuriy Polyakov and Dr. Dave Cousins, both Principal Scientists at Duality, says the company.

Duality, together with Intel, Microsoft, Samsung SDS, and IBM, is also a co-founder of the international Homomorphic Encryption Consortium, according to the company.

[Image courtesy: Duality]