Narrator: This is Science Today. Whether it’s booking a flight or looking up medical information, many of us are relying more and more on data provided over the Internet from electronic databases. But if hackers break into those databases, the repercussions could be financially, if not personally, damaging.

Devanbu: So, people like doctors and military personnel, if they ask for what are the medicines that could be used to treat a certain ailment? Or, where the tanks are located? You don’t want the information to false, you want it to be accurate.

Narrator: Computer scientist Prem Devanbu of the University of California, Davis, has created and developed the Truthsayer project – a system that provides an answer and a proof that ensures users sending queries that the information received is correct. Devanbu says if a database has been tampered with, the proof will automatically be wrong.

Devanbu: In the past, guaranteeing correct answers has been entirely dependent upon the trust that you have the person that’s providing you with the answers. Now it’s not, the trust is only on the data creator.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.