The research project is valued at more than S$340,000 ($255,330), inclusive of a PayPal financial grant of S$140,000.
PayPal will work with Nanyang Technological University's Strategic Centre for Research in Privacy-Preserving Technologies & Systems (SCRIPTS) to further cryptography research in secure multiparty computation (MPC) in Singapore, the global payments giant announced in a statement on Thursday.
The 15-month-long collaboration aims to future-proof PayPal’s security infrastructure and processes as online transactions continue to rise, the announcement said.
SCRIPTS will deliver a highly secured, resilient, and efficient cryptographic protocol that aims to strengthen the cryptographic operation used in PayPal’s data protection and security. By the end of the project, PayPal will have laboratory-based and large-scale prototypes developed based on its own use cases and requirements, as well as research that can be shared with the industry.
Game-Changing
According to PayPal, secured MPC could have a «game-changing» impact on the way data security is implemented for data-in-use when shared data is processed to derive insights and drive actionable steps in an untrusted external environment.
MPC can also support the data risk management strategy for businesses handling sensitive personal information of customers, employees and organizations through strengthening its data encryption platform.
«The benefits of this research go beyond the financial sector, opening doors to a wide range of possibilities for cross-sector data sharing and thereby enhancing industry collaboration,» Phoram Mehta, PayPal APAC chief infosec officer, said.
