Authenticating printed paper documents and websites against a blockchain record

• US 10,255,460 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2017
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kelce S. Wilson
• Original Assignee: Kelce S. Wilson
• Inventors: Wilson, Kelce S
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz Ditren, Belix M
• Application Number:
  US15/665,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20170329996A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/202 using pattern matching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32133 on the same paper sheet, e.g. a facsimile page header
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32272 Encryption or ciphering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3236 Details of authentication information generation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for rendering published documents tamper evident. Embodiments render classes of documents tamper evident with cryptographic level security or detect tampering events, where such security was previously unavailable, for example, in documents printed using common printers without special paper or ink. Embodiments enable proving the date of document content without the need for expensive third party archival, including documents held, since their creation, entirely in secrecy or in untrustworthy environments, such as on easily-altered, publicly-accessible internet sites. Embodiments can use a document'"'"'s prior registration date in a blockchain to establish a no-later-than date-of-existence for that document. Embodiments can extend the useful life of integrity verification algorithms, such as hash functions, even when applied to binary executable files. Embodiments can efficiently identify whether multiple document versions are substantially similar, even if they are not identical, thus potentially reducing storage space requirements.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented document integrity verification method, executable by a processor, the method comprising:

receiving a digital document into a non-transitory computer readable medium;

identifying a first original integrity verification code (IVC) in the document;

generating a first baseline data sequence from the digital document, the first baseline data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the first baseline data sequence, the first baseline data sequence excluding the first original IVC;

generating a first modified data sequence from the first baseline data sequence in accordance with a set of modification rules, the first modified data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the first modified data sequence,

wherein the first printable element of the first modified data sequence is identical to the first printable element of the first baseline data sequence,

wherein the final printable element of the first modified data sequence is identical to the final printable element of the first baseline data sequence,

wherein at least one unprintable element of the first baseline data sequence, between the first and final printable elements of the first baseline data sequence, is not within the first modified data sequence, so that the first modified data sequence is shorter than the first baseline data sequence, and

wherein an IVC generated for the first modified data sequence will differ from an IVC generated for the first baseline data sequence;

generating a first verification IVC, wherein generating a first verification IVC comprises performing a one-way operation on the first modified data sequence, and wherein the modification rules render tampering of the digital document undetectable for the at least one unprintable element within the first baseline data sequence;

comparing at least a portion of the first verification IVC with at least a portion of the first original IVC; and

responsive to a match in the at least a portion of the first verification IVC and the at least a portion of the first original IVC, reporting no evidence of tampering of the portion of the document corresponding to the first baseline data sequence.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a digital document into a non-transitory computer readable medium comprises scanning a document that had been printed on paper.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing an optical character recognition (OCR) on the document.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a digital document into a non-transitory computer readable medium comprises retrieving a document from a website.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the document is an html document.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a first IVC comprises identifying an IVC in a footer of a page.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

matching the first verification IVC with a record in an IVC database.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a second original integrity verification code (IVC) in the document;

generating a second baseline data sequence from the digital document, the second baseline data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the second baseline data sequence, the second baseline data sequence excluding the first original IVC and the second original IVC,

wherein the second baseline data sequence is different than the first baseline data sequence;

generating a second modified data sequence from the second baseline data sequence in accordance with the set of modification rules, the second modified data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the second modified data sequence,

wherein the first printable element of the second modified data sequence is identical to the first printable element of the second baseline data sequence,

wherein the final printable element of the second modified data sequence is identical to the final printable element of the second baseline data sequence,

wherein at least one unprintable element of the second baseline data sequence, between the first and final printable elements of the second baseline data sequence, is not within the second modified data sequence, so that the second modified data sequence is shorter than the second baseline data sequence, and

wherein an IVC generated for the second modified data sequence will differ from an IVC generated for the second baseline data sequence;

generating a second verification IVC, wherein generating a second verification IVC comprises performing a one-way operation on the second modified data sequence, and wherein the modification rules render tampering of the digital document undetectable for the at least one unprintable element within the second baseline data sequence;

comparing at least a portion of the second verification IVC with at least a portion of the second original IVC; and

responsive to a match in the at least a portion of the second verification IVC and the at least a portion of the second original IVC, reporting no evidence of tampering of the portion of the document corresponding to the second baseline data sequence.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein both the first original IVC and the second original IVC are published on a page corresponding to the second baseline data sequence.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first baseline data sequence corresponds to a set of multiple pages that includes the page corresponding to the second baseline data sequence.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the first baseline data sequence corresponds to a different page than the page corresponding to the second baseline data sequence.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the first baseline data sequence corresponds to a different page than a page corresponding to the second baseline data sequence.

13. A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer executable medium and configured to be executed by a processor, the program comprising:

code for receiving a digital document into a non-transitory computer readable medium;

code for receiving identifying a first original integrity verification code (IVC) in the document;

code for receiving generating a first baseline data sequence from the digital document, the first baseline data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the first baseline data sequence, the first baseline data sequence excluding the first original IVC;

code for generating a first modified data sequence from the first baseline data sequence in accordance with a set of modification rules, the first modified data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the first modified data sequence,

wherein the first printable element of the first modified data sequence is identical to the first printable element of the first baseline data sequence,

wherein the final printable element of the first modified data sequence is identical to the final printable element of the first baseline data sequence,

wherein at least one unprintable element of the first baseline data sequence, between the first and final printable elements of the first baseline data sequence, is not within the first modified data sequence, so that the first modified data sequence is shorter than the first baseline data sequence, and

wherein an IVC generated for the first modified data sequence will differ from an IVC generated for the first baseline data sequence;

code for generating a first verification IVC, wherein generating a first verification IVC comprises performing a one-way operation on the first modified data sequence, and wherein the modification rules render tampering of the digital document undetectable for the at least one unprintable element within the first baseline data sequence;

code for comparing at least a portion of the first verification IVC with at least a portion of the first original IVC; and

code for responding to a match in the at least a portion of the first verification IVC and the at least a portion of the first original IVC, the code for responding reporting no evidence of tampering of the portion of the document corresponding to the first baseline data sequence responsive to a match.

14. The computer program of claim 13 wherein receiving a digital document into a nontransitory computer readable medium comprises scanning a document that had been printed on paper.

15. The computer program of claim 13 further comprising:

code for performing an optical character recognition (OCR) on the document.

16. The computer program of claim 13 wherein code for receiving a digital document into a non-transitory computer readable medium comprises code for retrieving a document from a website.

17. The computer program of claim 13 wherein the document is an html document.

18. The computer program of claim 13 wherein code for identifying a first IVC comprises code for identifying an IVC in a footer of a page.

19. The computer program of claim 13 further comprising:

code for matching the first verification IVC with a record in an IVC database.

20. The computer program of claim 13 further comprising:

code for identifying a second original integrity verification code (IVC) in the document;

code for generating a second baseline data sequence from the digital document, the second baseline data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the second baseline data sequence, the second baseline data sequence excluding the first original IVC and the second original IVC,

wherein the second baseline data sequence is different than the first baseline data sequence,

code for generating a second modified data sequence from the second baseline data sequence in accordance with the set of modification rules, the second modified data sequence having a first printable element and a final printable element following the first printable element of the second modified data sequence,

wherein the first printable element of the second modified data sequence is identical to the first printable element of the second baseline data sequence,

wherein the final printable element of the second modified data sequence is identical to the final printable element of the second baseline data sequence,

wherein at least one unprintable element of the second baseline data sequence, between the first and final printable elements of the second baseline data sequence, is not within the second modified data sequence, so that the second modified data sequence is shorter than the second baseline data sequence, and

wherein an IVC generated for the second modified data sequence will differ from an IVC generated for the second baseline data sequence;

code for generating a second verification IVC, wherein generating a second verification IVC comprises performing a one-way operation on the second modified data sequence, and wherein the modification rules render tampering of the digital document undetectable for the at least one unprintable element within the second baseline data sequence;

code for comparing at least a portion of the second verification IVC with at least a portion of the second original IVC; and

code for responding to a match in the at least a portion of the second verification IVC and the at least a portion of the second original IVC, the code for responding reporting no evidence of tampering of the portion of the document corresponding to the second baseline data sequence responsive to a match.