Information matrix cryptogram

• US 20060041762A1
• Filed: 08/17/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hengli Ma
• Original Assignee: Hengli Ma
• Inventors: Ma, Hengli
• Granted Patent: US 7,577,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/189
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/002 Countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms network architectures or network communication protocols for protection against malicious traffic H04L63/1441
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/088 Usage controlling of secret information, e.g. techniques for restricting cryptographic keys to pre-authorized uses, different access levels, validity of crypto-period, different key- or password length, or different strong and weak cryptographic algorithms network architectures or network communication protocols for using time-dependent keys in a packet data network H04L63/068
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083

Abstract

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a concept of the present invention is to use technology and methods of a special coded information matrix cryptogram with five integrated technologies to protect the original digital data from forgery, counterfeiting and pirating effectively. Five technologies comprise of data matrix bitmap technology, compression technology, encryption technology, data allocating technology and authentication technology. They can enhance the information matrix cryptogram with the special features to the strongest level of security. The concept of designing the system of the present invention is to be able to convert any data in any kind of formats and size into a special formatted and coded information matrix cryptogram. This cryptogram with a special authentic code is unique and infeasible to break. The design of the open technology of the present invention allows the user to have flexible applicable options to protect the any data in any kind of format in a very safe and secure way.

Claims

1. A method of making the Information Matrix Cryptogram for anti-forgery, anti-counterfeiting, anti-piracy, authentication and verification relates to a system by sophistically integrating five technologies into a special coded matrix cryptogram that looks like a regular bitmap image, the method comprises:

said data matrix technology;

means of defining and designing a special coded data matrix; and

said compression technology;

means of compressing the data in the special coded data matrix; and

said encryption technology;

means of encrypting the data in the special coded data matrix; and

said data allocating technology;

means of allocating the original data into the special coded data matrix; and

,

said authentication technology. means of generating and appending special authentic codes to the special coded data matrix.

8. According to claim 1, the IMC encryption technology using a unique method of swapping the columns and the rows in the special coded data matrix, wherein four steps comprise:

said step 1 is to create the seed for the random number generator, the system or the user creates a string of 32 bytes of digits or characters that are 256 bits long as a seed for the random number generator and the system automatically use the random number generator to produce random numbers; and

said step 2 is to select the random number generator, and any random number generator can be used as long as it is able to generate the correct and required random numbers; and

said step 3 is to decide the random numbers indexing the columns and rows to be swapped, and the range of the number we need is from one digit to 5 digits, then the system of the present invention will make the numbers in pairs randomly, until the enough pair of columns or rows are swapped according to the requirement of the security of the system of the present invention; and

said step 4 is to swap the columns and the rows of the special coded data matrix, and the encryption actually begins from this step, and the system of the present invention will use the pairs of random numbers indexing to columns or rows to swap columns and rows, and according to the requirement of the security level, and the times of swapping of the columns or the rows will be at least 128 times or up to 1024 times to ensure that the system of the present invention has a required level of encryption, then a new data matrix is produced, all contents and information related to the data file will be randomly stored in the data matrix bitmap. Because the swapping is executed in a totally random way, the format of the data in cryptogram is completely different from the format of its original format, and thus it is impossible to predict where the cell sits and what information in the cryptogram each cell hides.

10. According to claim 1, the method of generating and appending a unique authentic code comprising:

said step 1;

create a 160-bit long seed for generating an authentic code either by the system of the present invention, or by the user itself; and

said step 2;

after getting a seed, the system will use the SHA-1 method or other similar methods to generate a first hash code of 160 bits long and as well use the SHA-1 or other similar methods to generate a hash code of the data in the first row of the data matrix, and after having first two hash codes, use an XOR operator to mix these two hash codes to generate a new hash code named Hash Code 1, and by using an XOR operator to mix Hash Code 1 with the hash code of data in the second row of the data matrix generated by using the SHA-1 method or other similar methods;

Hash Code 2 will be generated; and

The same procedure will be repeated again and again until by using an XOR operator to mix Hash Code N* with the hash code of the data in the last row in the data matrix by the SHA-1 method or other similar methods to generate the Final Hash Code; and

the final hash code will be the authentic code used for the information matrix cryptogram, and this authentic code is stored in the last row;

thus with this authentic code, the cryptogram will be able to be verified and authenticated in a very reliable way; and

the decoder key will not be able to decode the cryptogram if the cryptogram is not original or altered; and

said way of making an authentic code of the system of the present invention is unique and completely different from the current existing ways of generating the authentic code simply by SHA-1, and in this way, the unique authentic code in each cryptogram is infeasible to trace and very reliable.

11. According to claim 1:

the proprietary method of allocating the data in the cryptogram, wherein

said method to put the original data into a special data matrix that are ready to being compressed by a lossless compressing technology such as LZ77, LZ78, LZW or other similar technology. The compressed data is stored in the special coded cryptogram that looks like a regular bitmap image. The format of the cryptogram is totally different from the format of the original data.

2. The open design method of the system of the present invention makes the system of the Information Matrix Cryptogram very flexible:

the user has three options to choose according to the needs in the real world, said options comprise;

said Default Encryption for low level of encryption (up to 64 bits) and,

said IMC Encryption Technology for high level of encryption (256 bits or more) and,

said Customized Encryption technology such as AES, RSA, 3DES, PGP or any other encryption technology at the user'"'"'s choice.

3. A method of making a unique multi symmetric security key systems which comprises

said One-to-Many Security Key System for the general use;

said One-to-One Security Key System for the top confidential data and the private use;

said Associated Security Key System for anti piracy and other special purpose.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, said One-to-Many security key system (Default) has a pair of the encoder key and the decoder key. Its encoder key can convert any data in any kind of format into a cryptogram and its decoder key can be used by as many as viewers to retrieve the original data file in the cryptograms encoded by the encoder key of its pair.

said One-to-Many Security Key System, each pair of encoder key and decoder key is independent and different from each other and not interchangeable at all;

this is realized by assigning a unique extension name to the Information Matrix Cryptogram that is only recognized by its pair of encoder key and decoder key.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, said One-to-One Security Key System by assigning the cryptogram a special code created by the user with any method makes a unique pair of One-to-One keys that can protect the data and privacy in the strongest level.

6. A method as recited in claim 3, said Associated Security Key System with a unique feature generates a unique decoder key associated together with the cryptogram that is encoded by the encoder key together with its paired decoder key, and only its own associated decoder key can decode the cryptogram of this data file.

7. A method as recited in claim 3, the encoder key and the decoder key is a pair of symmetric encryption keys in the said multi symmetric security key system, wherein

said encoder key is used to create a data matrix, allocate the data in the data matrix, compress and encrypt the data file in the data matrix, convert the data matrix into a cryptogram, generate and append an authenticate code to the cryptogram;

and

said decoder key is used to decode the cryptogram and retrieve the original data only after the cryptogram to be coded is identified and authenticated properly.

9. A method of making the multi effect of strengthening encryption, wherein:

said method of encrypting the cryptogram where the data sits as many times as necessary and this is called multi effect of strengthening encryption of the cryptogram, and according to the user'"'"'s need, they can be “

double effect of encryption”

or “

triple effect of encryption”

or “

quadruple effect of encryption” and

;

said method of making the multi effect encryption by using with either a different pair of the encoder key and the decoder key or simply use the same pair of key to encrypt the data matrix repeatedly, achieving the required level encryption and as well meeting with needs of the user, especially in situation that a data file should be viewed at the same time by more than two persons.

12. A method of delivering the encoder key and decoder key comprising:

said step 1, a encoder key or a decoder key will be encrypted in a steganographic images while the associated ID and password will be generated at the same time, and any images can be used as steganographic media to hide the encoder key and/or the decoder key;

the steganographic images where the encoder key or the decoder key is hidden can be downloaded from the sender'"'"'s server or sent by the e-mail or other means. The user retrieves the encoder key or the decoder key from the steganographic images and gets the associated ID and password separately.

This delivery system of the security keys makes it very difficult for anyone who is not an authorized person to get the real encoder key or decoder key or their associated ID and password.

13. A method of increasing the security strength of the Information Matrix Cryptogram, wherein:

said method to allow the decoded file to be deleted immediately after the program for viewing the data file is closed. This function can be turned on or off at the user'"'"'s choice.

14. A method of verifying and authenticating the cryptogram, wherein

Said the cryptogram can be decoded only after the cryptogram is verified and authenticated by a decoder key. The original date will be retrieved immediately after the cryptogram is verified and authenticated correctly. Or A warning message of “

This cryptogram is not original or altered. Please hold the person who present this file”

is displayed if the cryptogram fails to be verified and authenticated. At the same time the related program will be shut down immediately.

15. A method of limiting the power of the encoder key and decoder key, wherein:

said system of the present invention can control the capability that the encoder key and the decoder key in order to limit the power of the pairs of the encoder key and decoder, and the system can limit the size of the data file that the encoder key or decoder key is able to deal with, e.g. if a pair of encoder key and encoder is limited to process the data files of the size of no more than 100K, and then this pair of keys will not be able to process size of any data file over 100K. This feature can help the user simply by controlling the power of the encoder key and decoder key and control the size of the data file to be encrypted and save the budget to meet with the special need in real world.