System and methods for validating and performing operations on homomorphically encrypted data

1. A method of processing a secure financial transaction, comprising:

receiving a transaction request to complete a financial transaction, with at least a portion of the request encrypted according to a homomorphic encryption scheme, and the transaction request comprising encrypted confidential cardholder data comprising a plurality of strings corresponding to a plurality of transaction and payment data in the encrypted confidential cardholder data, the plurality of transaction and payment data including an account number, other cardholder data, and transaction data;

retrieving one or more sets of encrypted comparison cardholder card data from a cardholder data database, each set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data encrypted according to a homomorphic encryption scheme and comprising a plurality of transaction and payment data corresponding to the plurality of transaction and payment data in the encrypted confidential cardholder data;

comparing the encrypted confidential cardholder data to each set of the encrypted comparison cardholder card data using one or more homomorphic operations comprising at least one multiplication operation on the plurality of strings collectively to determine which set of comparison cardholder card data matches the encrypted confidential cardholder data and validating the encrypted confidential cardholder data, wherein the one or more homomorphic operations combine to form an XNOR operation, wherein the XNOR operation is modelled as z=(1−x−y)(1−x−y);

retrieving the transaction data and comparing the transaction data using the one or more homomorphic operations to determine whether a transaction amount can be authorized;

generating an encrypted indicator indicating authorization or rejection of the request to complete the financial transaction based upon at least the validation of the encrypted confidential cardholder data; and

forwarding the encrypted indicator indicating authorization or rejection of the request to complete the financial transaction to a party seeking authorization to complete the financial transaction, wherein the encrypted confidential cardholder data is never decrypted during the method; and

wherein a portion of the request is compared to the set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data to reduce size of the set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data prior to comparing the encrypted confidential cardholder data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the homomorphic encryption scheme is a fully homomorphic encryption scheme or a somewhat homomorphic encryption scheme.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more homomorphic operations combine to form an XNOR operation.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to complete the financial transaction is received by one or more of: a financial institution, a credit card company, a card issuer or a payment processor.

5. A non-transient computer-readable medium containing computer-readable instructions which when executed by a computer processor perform a method of:

receiving a transaction request to complete a financial transaction, with at least a portion of the request encrypted according to a homomorphic encryption scheme, and the transaction request comprising encrypted confidential cardholder data comprising a plurality of strings corresponding to a plurality of transaction and payment data in the encrypted confidential cardholder data, the plurality of transaction and payment data including an account number, other cardholder data, and transaction data;

retrieving one or more sets of encrypted comparison cardholder card data from a cardholder data database, each set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data encrypted according to a homomorphic encryption scheme and comprising a plurality of transaction and payment data corresponding to the plurality of transaction and payment data in the encrypted confidential cardholder data;

comparing the encrypted confidential cardholder data to each set of the encrypted comparison cardholder card data using one or more homomorphic operations comprising at least one multiplication operation on the plurality of strings collectively to determine which set of comparison cardholder card data matches the encrypted confidential cardholder data and validating the encrypted confidential cardholder data, wherein the one or more homomorphic operations combine to form an XNOR operation, wherein the XNOR operation is modelled as z=(1−x−y)(1−x−y);

retrieving the transaction data and comparing the transaction data using the one or more homomorphic operations to determine whether a transaction amount can be authorized;

generating an encrypted indicator indicating authorization or rejection of the request to complete the financial transaction based upon at least the validation of the encrypted confidential cardholder data; and

forwarding the encrypted indicator indicating authorization or rejection of the request to complete the financial transaction to a party seeking authorization to complete the financial transaction,

wherein the encrypted confidential cardholder data is never decrypted during the method; and

wherein a portion of the request is compared to the set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data to reduce size of the set of encrypted comparison cardholder card data prior to comparing the encrypted confidential cardholder data.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the homomorphic encryption scheme is a fully homomorphic encryption scheme or a somewhat homomorphic encryption scheme.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the request to complete the financial transaction is received by one or more of: a financial institution, a credit card company, a card issuer or a payment processor.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the transaction amount can be authorized includes verifying that the encrypted confidential cardholder data is for a valid account.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein determining whether a transaction amount can be authorized includes verifying that the encrypted confidential cardholder data is for a valid account.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encrypted confidential cardholder data includes one or more of: a portion of the account number, the account number, an expiry date and a Card Verification Value (CVV) number.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the other cardholder data includes one or more of: a bank name, a cardholder name, a Bank Identification Number (BIN) and a further portion of the account number.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction data includes one or more of: a transaction amount, a transaction date and a merchant identifier.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the financial transaction is a credit card transaction or a debit card transaction or a stored-value card transaction.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the encrypted confidential cardholder data includes one or more of: a portion of the account number, the account number, an expiry date and a Card Verification Value (CVV) number.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the other cardholder data includes one or more of: a bank name, a cardholder name, a Bank Identification Number (BIN) and a further portion of the account number.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the transaction data includes one or more of: a transaction amount, a transaction date and a merchant identifier.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the financial transaction is a credit card transaction or a debit card transaction or a stored-value card transaction.