The Thermodynamics of Confidentiality

What has a property (confidentiality) of a human artifact (software) to do with the most basic laws of physics?

I came across these questions and some answers in recent years. I found it a fascinating tale about the physical value of information and the cost incurred in protecting it. Some of these results are fundamental limits on any physical device guaranteeing a certain degree of confidentiality while others relate to physical properties of timing channels.

This talk will survey (in accessible form) some of these results/ideas, their interpretation and possible research directions.

This is a joint work with Fabrizio Smeraldi.