Methods and systems for similarity searching encrypted data strings

Abstract

Methods and systems of similarity searching encrypted data strings are disclosed. An exemplary method can include receiving data strings, obtaining a set of reference strings, determining edit distances between each data string and the reference strings, converting each set of edit distances into a document of tokens. A method may further include encrypting the data strings, associating each of the documents with a corresponding data string, and storing the data strings and the associated documents in a memory. A method may continue by receiving a search request, determining a search set of edit distances between the search request and the reference strings, converting the search set of edit distances into a document, comparing the search document with the documents stored in memory to determine which documents are above a similarity threshold compared to the search document, and returning the data strings associated with documents above the similarity threshold.