Computing Without Revealing: A Cryptographic Approach to eProcurement

Abstract

In typical eProcurement processes, sensitive data such as prices, intellectual property, and customer information often flow across enterprise boundaries. Such data sharing amplifies the risk of a data breach due to exposure to the potential security flaws of prospective and current eProcurement partners. Threats of information leakage inhibit enterprises from sharing sensitive data; thus, enterprises cannot take full advantage of the eProcurement process. Existing cryptography-based data sharing protocols impose a high computational burden for maintaining data confidentiality, making them unsuitable for real-time applications such as eProcurement. With this motivation, we address the following research question: How can procurers and suppliers securely conduct their business transactions without revealing their confidential information? The proposed approach enables procurers and suppliers to perform computations while preserving their confidential data. In this paper, we show how Computing-Without-Revealing (CWR)–based data sharing protocols can be used as building blocks to execute procurement auctions for standard products. A web-based platform is developed to measure the performance of the CWR protocols against competing techniques. Experimental results corroborate the efficiency of the CWR-based protocols, making them suitable for real-time applications. The application of the protocols is demonstrated for different eProcurement scenarios, including first- and second-price auctions for standard products.