Document authentication

• US 20050038787A1
• Filed: 08/16/2004
• Published: 02/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Staniford, Bejamin Terrick, Cheung, Daniel Lee Yuk
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data

Abstract

A method, system, computer program and web service for authenticating a document is described comprising; receiving a request to verify the earliest date of a document, such a request including the document itself; creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm; searching a database for a matching signature to the created signature; and responding to the request with a date associated with a matched signature. The checksum algorithm is an MD5 algorithm and will produce a unique signature for each non-identical set of binary data and no two sets of binary data will render an identical signature. Signatures are created of the objects of a document. Separate signatures are created of the content and the formatting of the document.

Claims

1. A method for authenticating a document comprising;

receiving a request to verify the earliest date of a document, such a request including the document itself;

creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

responding to the request with a date associated with a matched signature.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the checksum algorithm will produce a unique signature for each non-identical set of binary data and no two sets of binary data will render an identical signature.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein the checksum algorithm is a MD5 algorithm.

4. A method as in claim 1 further comprising creating signatures of the objects of a document.

5. A method as in claim 1 further comprising creating separate signatures of the content and the formatting of the document.

9. A method as in claim 5 further comprising creating signatures of the objects of a document.

10. A method as in claim 5 further comprising creating separate signatures of the content and the formatting of the document.

6. A method for creating an authentication document database comprising:

crawling the web in a logical manner for documents using one or more seeds URLs and using the URL links in the documents at the seed URLs and subsequent URLs;

creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a signature database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

storing the signature if it is a new signature.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein the checksum algorithm will produce a unique signature for each non-identical set of binary data and no two sets of binary data will render an identical signature.

8. A method as in claim 7 wherein the checksum algorithm is a MD5 algorithm.

11. A system for authenticating a document comprising;

means for receiving a request to verify the earliest date of a document, such a request including the document itself;

means for creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

responding to the request with a date associated with a matched signature.

12. A system as in claim 11 wherein the checksum algorithm will produce a unique signature for each non-identical set of binary data and no two sets of binary data will render an identical signature.

13. A system as in claim 12 wherein the checksum algorithm is a MD5 algorithm.

14. A system as in claim 11 further comprising means for creating signatures of the objects of a document.

15. A system as in claim 11 further comprising means for creating separate signatures of the content and the formatting of the document.

19. A system as in claim 15 further comprising means for creating signatures of the objects of a document.

20. A system as in claim 15 further comprising means for creating separate signatures of the content and the formatting of the document.

16. A system for creating an authentication document database comprising:

means for crawling the web in a logical manner for documents using one or more seeds URLs and using the URL links in the documents at the seed URLs and subsequent URLs;

means for creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

means for searching a signature database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

means for storing the signature if it is a new signature.

17. A system as in claim 16 wherein the checksum algorithm will produce a unique signature for each non-identical set of binary data and no two sets of binary data will render an identical signature.

18. A system as in claim 17 wherein the checksum algorithm is a MD5 algorithm.

21. A computer program product for processing one or more sets of data processing tasks, said computer program product comprising computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium for, when loaded into a computer and executed, causing a computer to carry out the steps of a method for authenticating a document comprising;

receiving a request to verify the earliest date of a document, such a request including the document itself;

creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

responding to the request with a date associated with a matched signature.

22. A computer program product for processing one or more sets of data processing tasks, said computer program product comprising computer program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium for, when loaded into a computer and executed, causing a computer to carry out the steps of a method for creating an authentication document database comprising:

crawling the web in a logical manner for documents using one or more seeds URLs and using the URL links in the documents at the seed URLs and subsequent URLs;

creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a signature database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

storing the signature if it is a new signature.

23. A web service for authenticating a document comprising;

receiving a Internet request from a user to verify the earliest date of a document, such a request including the document itself;

creating a signature of the received document by running the document against a checksum algorithm;

searching a signature database for a matching signature to the created signature; and

responding to the request with a date associated with a matched signature.