"Engineer at Sandia Labs Turns Error Detection into 'Secret Language' for Data Security"

Celestino Corral, an electrical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), developed a method that uses error-checking computer code to improve the security of digital content, such as email and social media messaging. Corral started working on error detection in digital code in 2018. Error detection is applied in every electronic message sent between people, embedded in the code for that transmission. He says that even the most robust form of error checking has limitations. If someone is listening in on data, different error-detection methods can be used for each piece of content. The listener will have to take more time to figure out each way in which the error detection is used. Intentional or artificial errors can also be introduced into the message that results in the same code. Eavesdroppers will not know about them and will be unable to read the message without fixing those errors. According to Corral, the manipulation of error detection is a known practice, but it has not been applied in this way to enhance obfuscation and prevent others from reading and using data. Corral emphasizes that the method is not encryption, but it can be used to prevent unauthorized persons from learning anything valuable from online data. This article continues to discuss the method invented to use error detection for data security. 

SNL reports "Engineer at Sandia Labs Turns Error Detection into 'Secret Language' for Data Security"