HerA Scheme: Secure Distributed Matrix Multiplication via Hermitian Codes

We consider the problem of secure distributed matrix multiplication (SDMM), where a user has two matrices and wishes to compute their product with the help of N honest but curious servers under the security constraint that any information about either A or B is not leaked to any server. This paper presents a new scheme that considers the inner product partition for matrices A and B. Our central technique relies on encoding matrices A and B in a Hermitian code and its dual code, respectively. We present the Hermitian Algebraic (HerA) scheme, which employs Hermitian codes and characterizes the partitioning and security capacities given entries of matrices belonging to a finite field with q² elements. We showcase that this scheme performs the secure distributed matrix multiplication in a significantly smaller finite field and expands security allowances compared to the existing results in the literature.