Secure Source Coding with a Public Helper

TL;DR

This paper analyzes secure multi-terminal source coding with a public helper, characterizing the tradeoffs between transmission rate, distortion, and information leakage in scenarios where helper information may be eavesdropped or publicly accessible.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive characterization of the rate-distortion-leakage tradeoff in secure source coding with a public helper, covering multiple problem scenarios.

Findings

Derived the rate-distortion-leakage region for source coding with a helper.

Characterized the impact of helper's public nature on information leakage.

Established bounds on transmission rate and distortion under security constraints.

Abstract

We consider secure multi-terminal source coding problems in the presence of a public helper. Two main scenarios are studied: 1) source coding with a helper where the coded side information from the helper is eavesdropped by an external eavesdropper; 2) triangular source coding with a helper where the helper is considered as a public terminal. We are interested in how the helper can support the source transmission subject to a constraint on the amount of information leaked due to its public nature. We characterize the tradeoff between transmission rate, incurred distortion, and information leakage rate at the helper/eavesdropper in the form of a rate-distortion-leakage region for various classes of problems.