The field of homomorphic encryption is rapidly advancing, with a focus on improving efficiency and scalability. Recent developments have enabled the use of homomorphic encryption in real-world applications, such as secure online voting systems. Researchers are also exploring new techniques for plaintext-ciphertext matrix multiplication, which is a crucial component of many privacy-preserving computations. Furthermore, advances in cryptographic techniques, such as the use of permutation polynomials over finite fields, are leading to the discovery of new binary cyclic codes with optimal parameters. Noteworthy papers include: Fast Plaintext-Ciphertext Matrix Multiplication from Additively Homomorphic Encryption, which proposes an efficient algorithm for PC-MM using unpacked AHE schemes, and EFFACT: A Highly Efficient Full-Stack FHE Acceleration Platform, which presents a novel acceleration platform with a compiler and vector-friendly hardware for fully homomorphic encryption.