Electronic postmarking without directly ultilizing an electronic postmark server

• US 20040034780A1
• Filed: 06/13/2003
• Published: 02/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Postal Service (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: United States Postal Service (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Chamberlain, Charles R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,266,696 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/121 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing electronic postmarking of data, without directly utilizing a regular electronic postmark (EPM) server (110), including receiving data from a data acquisition device (102), generating a MicroEPM data structure (106) comprising a time stamp, a digital signature, and the received data and transferring the MicroEPM data structure (106) to a regular EPM server (110).

Claims

1. A method for performing electronic postmarking of data, without directly utilizing a regular electronic postmark (EPM) server, the method comprising:

receiving data from a data acquisition device;

generating a MicroEPM data structure comprising a hash value of the received data and a digital signature; and

transferring the MicroEPM data structure to a regular EPM server.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

generating a time/date stamp from a time source; and

hashing the time/date stamp and the received data to produce a hash value.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the time source is not a trusted source, and further including:

acquiring a trusted start time reference; and

wherein hashing includes hashing the trusted start time reference, the time/date stamp, and the digital data to produce a hash value.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein acquiring a trusted start time reference further includes:

receiving an external time signal from a broadcast source.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the broadcast source is a GPS system and wherein acquiring a trusted start time reference further includes:

receiving an external time signal from the GPS system

6. The method of claim 2, further including:

digitally signing the hash value, and the time/date stamp to produce a digital signature.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein digitally signing further includes:

digitally signing the hash value, the time/date stamp and the digital data.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

generating a time/date stamp from a time source; and

digitally signing the hash value and the time/date stamp to produce a digital signature.

9. The method of claim 8, further wherein digitally signing further includes

digitally signing the hash value, the time/date stamp and the digital data to produce a digital signature.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the time source is not a trusted time source and wherein the method further includes:

acquiring a trusted start time reference; and

digitally signing the signing the hash value, the trusted start time reference, and the time/date stamp to produce a digital signature.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the digitally signing further includes:

digitally signing the signing the hash value, the trusted start time reference, the time/date stamp, and the digital data to produce a digital signature.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein generating further includes:

generating a MicroEPM data structure comprising a hash value, a digital signature, and the received digital data.

13. The method of claim 1, further including:

storing the generated MicroEPM data structure in a batch of generated MicroEPM data structures; and

wherein the step of transferring includes transferring the batch of stored MicroEPM data structures.

14. The method of claim 13, further including:

acquiring a new trusted start reference.

15. The method of claim 1, further including:

processing, by the regular EPM server, the transferred MicroEPM data structures.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein processing includes:

generating an EPM data structure corresponding to the transferred MicroEPM data structure.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein processing includes:

generating a trusted time/date stamp;

hashing the time/date stamp and the batch of MicroEPM data structures to produce a second hash value; and

generating an EPM data structure comprising the second hash value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating further includes generating an EPM data structure comprising the second hash value and the batch of MicroEPM data structures.

19. A method for performing electronic postmarking of data, without directly utilizing a regular EPM server, comprising:

receiving data from a data acquisition device;

generating a time/date stamp;

hashing the data and the time/date stamp to produce a hash value;

digitally signing the hash value and the time/date stamp;

generating a MicroEPM data structure comprising the hash value and the digital signature;

storing the MicroEPM data structure in a batch; and

sending a batch of stored MicroEPM data structures to a regular EPM server.

20. An apparatus for performing electronic postmarking of data, without directly utilizing a regular electronic postmark (EPM) server, comprising:

means for receiving data from a data acquisition device;

means for generating a MicroEPM data structure comprising a hash value and a digital signature; and

an interface for transferring the MicroEPM data structure to a regular EPM server.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further including:

means for acquiring a time/date stamp; and

means for hashing the time/date stamp and the received data to produce a hash value.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the time/date stamp is not from a trusted source, and wherein the apparatus further includes:

means for acquiring a trusted start time reference; and

means for hashing the trusted start time reference, the time/date stamp and the digital data to produce a hash value.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, further including:

an interface for receiving an external time signal from a broadcast source.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the broadcast source is a GPS system and wherein the apparatus further includes:

a GPS signal receiver.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, further including:

means for digitally signing the hash value and the time date stamp to produce a digital signature.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 further including:

means for digitally signing the hash value, the time/date stamp, and the digital data.

27. The apparatus of claim 20, further including:

means for acquiring a time/date stamp; and

means for digitally signing the hash value and the time date stamp to produce a digital signature.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further including:

means for digitally signing the hash value, the time date stamp, and the digital data to produce a digital signature.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the time/date stamp is not from a trusted source and wherein the apparatus further includes:

an interface for acquiring a trusted start time reference; and

means for digitally signing the signing the hash value, the trusted start time reference, and the time/date stamp to produce a digital signature.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, further including:

means for digitally signing the signing the hash value, the trusted start time reference, the time/date stamp, and the digital data to produce a digital signature.

31. The apparatus of claim 20, further including:

means for generating a MicroEPM data structure comprising a hash value, a digital signature, and the received digital data.

32. The apparatus of claim 20, further including:

a memory for storing the generated MicroEPM data structure in a batch of generated MicroEPM data structures; and

an interface for transferring the batch of stored MicroEPM data structures.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, further including:

means acquiring a new trusted start reference.

34. The apparatus of claim 20, further including:

means for processing, by the regular EPM server, the transferred MicroEPM data structures.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, further including:

means for generating an EPM data structure corresponding to the transferred MicroEPM data structure.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, further including:

means for generating a trusted time/date stamp;

means for hashing the time/date stamp and the batch of MicroEPM data structures;

to produce a second hash value; and

means for generating an EPM data structure comprising the second hash value.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, further including;

means for generating an EPM data structure comprising the second hash value and the batch of MicroEPM data structures.

38. The apparatus of claim 20, the means for receiving data further comprises an internal data acquisition device.

39. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the means for receiving data further comprises an interface for receiving data from an external data acquisition/generation device.