The Adversarial Robustness of Sketching and Streaming Algorithms

Abstract

Sketching and streaming algorithms are vital for handling massive datasets. While classical methods guarantee correctness on fixed inputs, they often fail with adaptive inputs, where future data depends on past algorithm outputs. This is common in settings such as optimization, databases, finance, and network monitoring. This monograph surveys recent advances in adversarial robustness, including techniques for insertion-only streams, connections to differential privacy, and cryptographic methods that achieve adversarial robustness. We also discuss fundamental limitations, especially for linear sketches and streams with insertions and deletions, where robustness often requires polynomial space or sketching dimension. Throughout, we explore core problems like adaptively answering queries for optimization problems, norm estimation, frequency moments, and heavy hitters, and highlight emerging tools and open challenges at the intersection of streaming, sketching, privacy, and adversarial robustness.