Research summary
Data security is the process of protecting data from unauthorized access and corruption. It can include encryption, hashing, tokenization and key management practices across applications and platforms. Behind the scenes, there are complex mathematical operations that support these practices.
Dr. Dang Khoa Nguyen, Canada Research Chair in Number Theory and Arithmetic Geometry, is solving problems in data security by using advanced mathematics to study the principle of unlikely intersections in dynamics. This principle generally states that when two objects are “random,” the probability that they will intersect is small. Both the famous Pollard’s rho algorithm—a prime algorithm for factoring numbers—and the discrete logarithm problem rely on the randomness of certain dynamical systems, and both of these problems play a crucial role in data security.