Method and apparatus for securing data

• US 20030149852A1
• Filed: 11/26/2002
• Published: 08/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kang, Seong Cheol
• Granted Patent: US 7,185,161 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/164
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/80 in storage media based on magnetic or optical technology, e.g. disks with sectors preventing unauthorised reproduction or copying of disc-type recordable media G11B20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2121 Chip on media, e.g. a disk or tape with a chip embedded in its case

Abstract

A method or apparatus can reduce or prevent unauthorized data access by securing data stored on a hard disk of a computer system. The method can include requesting a user to enter a password if the computer system is powered on under the condition that a password for security of the hard disk of the computer system is previously stored and data previously written on the hard disk is converted into a specific format for security and stored on the hard disk of the computer system, determining whether the password entered by the user corresponds to the previously stored password, storing the determined result, and selectively reading and outputting the format-converted data stored on the hard disk upon the user requests according to the determined result. The requested data can be output to a monitor. User write operation requests can operate according to the determined result.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor that operates application programs; and

a removable storage device coupled to the processor and configured to store data accessible to the processor, wherein the removable storage device is provided a second password using the processor, and wherein the removable storage device is not responsive to data access request unless a first password associated with the data access request corresponds to the second password.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first password and second password are the same.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second passwords are different.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the removable storage device is a hard disk drive and the processor is part of a CPU of a portable computer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data access request is a data read or a data write.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the removable storage device is configured to store the second password, and wherein the passwords are one of user codes, biometric information, hardware identification numbers, data received via encoded smart cards and registration numbers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the removable storage device stores data in an encrypted format upon a write data access request, wherein the removable storage device outputs decrypted data responsive to a read data access request when the first password corresponds to the second password.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the removable storage device outputs the encrypted data responsive to the read data access request when the first password does not correspond to the second password.

9. A method for securing data stored on a hard disk of a computer system, comprising:

a) requesting a user to enter a password when a password for security of said computer system is previously registered, wherein data to be written to the hard disk is converted into a specific format for security when stored on said hard disk of said computer system;

b) determining whether said password entered by said user is the same as said previously registered security password and storing the determined result;

c) reading the data stored on said hard disk in said specific format for security if said user requests it to be read from said hard disk; and

d) processing the read data in different manners according to the determined result.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determined result is stored in the form of a flag.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when the stored flag indicates password identity, performing a data conversion operation with respect to said read data to restore said read data to an original data from said specific format for security, and displaying the restored original data on a monitor.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein if the determined result indicates password consistency, responding to a read data access request by outputting decrypted data from the hard disk and responding to a write data access request by storing corresponding data on the hard disk in an encrypted format.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein if the determined result indicates password inconsistency, responding to a read data access request using encrypted data and responding to a write data access request by not storing corresponding data on the hard disk.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein if the determined result indicates password inconsistency, responding to a read data access request or a write data access request by not processing said data access request.

15. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein a first manner of processing the data access request responds to a read data access by outputting decrypted data from the hard disk and responds to a write data access request by storing corresponding data on the hard disk in an encrypted format, and wherein a second manner of processing the data access request is not responsive to the read data access request or the write data access request.

16. A method for securing data stored on a hard disk of a portable computer system, comprising:

a) converting data requested to be written by a user into a predetermined format for security when the user requests a write operation after booting of said computer system is completed; and

b) storing the security format-converted data on said hard disk of said computer system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the format conversion is selectively performed based on matching a password stored to allow access to the hard disk.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein responsive to a data read request for the hard disk the format conversion is selectively performed based on matching a password stored to allow access to the hard disk.

19. A method, comprising:

enabling a computer system;

selectively accessing encoded data stored in a first format in a detachable storage device; and

outputting said data converted to a second format when a security code for the detachable storage device is matched.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising:

requesting a password responsive to a data access request of the detachable storage device;

determining whether said password corresponds to the security code; and

processing the data access request when the password corresponds to the registered security code.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising registering the security code, and wherein the data access request is a data read access request or a data write access request.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the computer system is a notebook computer and the detachable storage device is a hard disk, wherein the password matches the security code when the password is equal to the security code, and wherein the first format is an encrypted format and wherein the second format is a decrypted format.