Verifiable cryptographically secured ledgers for human resource systems

• US 10,296,764 B1
• Filed: 11/18/2016
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Batishchev, Andriy
• Primary Examiner(s): Reza, Mohammad W
• Application Number:
  US15/356,462
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 726 26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

One or more human resources systems implements one or more cryptographically secured ledger(s) to persist transactions related to administered objects, such as employee objects. Attribute and/or state changes associated with a given employee object are represented as transactions between accounts that represent different attributes and/or states.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving, by a human resources system implemented by the one or more computer systems, a request to update a first state of an employee object to a different second state of the employee object;

generating a transaction associated with the request;

confirming the transaction with a plurality of entities implementing a blockchain ledger;

committing the transaction to the blockchain ledger;

in response to committing the transaction to the blockchain ledger, updating one or more data representations of a database implemented by the human resources system to reflect the second state, wherein the one or more data representations are associated with the employee object;

receiving a second request, for a current state of the employee object; and

providing, via the database implemented by the human resources system, the one or more data representations as part of fulfilling the second request.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the update to the second state includes a reassignment of the employee object from a first account implemented by the human resources system to a different second account implemented by the human resources system, wherein the first account and the second account are both parent accounts according to a hierarchical structure object.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the first account and the second account are different cost centers tracked by the human resources system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data representations are specific to a configuration of the human resources system.

5. A human resources system, comprising:

at least one computing device that implements one or more services, wherein the one or more services;

receive, by the system, a request to update a first state of an object administered by the system to a different second state of the object;

generate a transaction associated with the request;

commit the transaction to the cryptographically secured ledger;

based on committing the transaction, update a database implemented by the system to reflect the different second state; and

provide, in response to a second request for a current state of the object and via the database, information related to the transaction.

6. The human resources system of claim 5, wherein the object is an employee object.

7. The human resources system of claim 6, wherein the first state and the second state are both employment statuses associated with an employee associated with the employee object.

8. The human resources system of claim 6, wherein the first state and the second state are associated with a respective assignment of the employee object to a respective cost center.

9. The human resources system of claim 6, wherein the first state and the second state are associated with a change in an attribute associated with the employee object.

10. The human resources system of claim 6, wherein the update is associated with a change in an organizational structure represented by the system.

11. The human resources system of claim 5, wherein the transaction is associated with transferring the object from a first account to a different second account implemented by the cryptographically secured ledger.

12. The human resources system of claim 11, wherein the first account and the second account are associated with a respective different entity of an organizational structure represented by the human resources system.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least:

receive a request to update a first state of an object associated with an employee entity administered by the computer system to a different second state of the object;

process the request to generate a transaction for a cryptographically secured ledger associated with the computer system;

commit the transaction to the cryptographically secured ledger;

as a result of committing the transaction to the cryptographically secured ledger, cause a second transaction to be committed to a different cryptographically secured ledger; and

provide information related to the second state based at least in part on the transaction and the second transaction.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the transaction is associated with updating an account to which the object is assigned.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the account is associated with a cost center to which an employee associated with the employee entity is assigned.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the second transaction is based at least in part on the first transaction.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the second transaction includes a cryptographic confirmation of the first transaction having been committed.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the cryptographically secured ledger and the different cryptographically secured ledger are associated with different respective human resources systems.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the transaction is committed as a result of a proof of work challenge being completed by a number of entities implementing the cryptographically secured ledger.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the transaction is committed in connection with a verification of an identity associated with the request.