System and method for secure communication of electronic documents

• US 20060153374A1
• Filed: 01/06/2005
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Shahindoust, Amir, Yeung, Michael, Honig, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,502,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0662 with particular pseudorandom sequence generator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system and method for secure communication of electronic documents to a document processing device. A document processing request containing electronic document data is received containing document data in an unencrypted form. A seed value is then received and used to generate a random number. The random number is used to encrypt the electronic document. The seed value, in a header, is transmitted, along with the encrypted electronic document, to a document processing device. The document processing device extracts the seed value from the header and uses the seed value to generate a random number. The encrypted document is then decrypted using the random number generated from the seed value. The document processing device subsequently performs the selected document processing operation on the decrypted electronic document.

Claims

1. A system for secure communication of electronic documents comprising:

means adapted for receiving a document processing request, which document processing request includes document data representative of an unencrypted, electronic document;

means adapted for receiving a seed value;

random number generation means adapted for generating a random number from the seed value;

encryption means adapted for encrypting the document data in accordance with the random number so as to generate encrypted document data;

communication means adapted for communicating the encrypted document data to an associated document processing device; and

means adapted for communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device.

2. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 1, further comprising a document processing device, the document processing device including:

means adapted for receiving the encrypted document data and the seed value;

means adapted for generating the random number from the seed value;

decryption means adapted for decrypting the encrypted document data to re-generate the document data; and

means adapted for commencing a selected document processing operation on the document data.

3. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 1, wherein the encryption means include means adapted for encrypting the seed value in accordance with the random number so as to generate an encrypted seed value.

4. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 2, wherein the decryption means include means adapted for decrypting the encrypted seed value.

5. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 2, further comprising means adapted for supplying a selected encryption/decryption algorithm to the encryption means and the decryption means.

6. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 1, wherein the means adapted for communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device includes means adapted for appending the seed value to the encrypted document data so as to communicate the seed value with the encrypted document data to the associated document processing device.

7. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 6, wherein the seed value is appended as header data of the encrypted document data.

8. The system for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 1, wherein in the seed value is a 32 bit sequence.

18. The computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 1, further comprising:

instructions for receiving the encrypted document data and the seed value at the associated document processing device;

instructions for generating the random number from the seed value;

instructions for decrypting the encrypted document data to re-generate the document data; and

instructions for commencing a selected document processing operation on the document data.

20. The computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 18, further comprising instructions for decrypting the encrypted seed value.

21. The computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 18, further comprising means adapted for supplying a selected encryption/decryption algorithm to the encryption means and the decryption means.

9. A method for secure communication of electronic documents comprising the steps of:

receiving a document processing request, which document processing request includes document data representative of an unencrypted, electronic document;

receiving a seed value;

generating a random number from the seed value;

encrypting the document data in accordance with the random number so as to generate encrypted document data;

communicating the encrypted document data to an associated document processing device; and

communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device.

10. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the encrypted document data and the seed value at the associated document processing device;

generating the random number from the seed value;

decrypting the encrypted document data to re-generate the document data; and

commencing a selected document processing operation on the document data.

11. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 9, further comprising the step of encrypting the seed value in accordance with the random number so as to generate an encrypted seed value.

12. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 10, further comprising the step of decrypting the encrypted seed value.

13. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 10, further comprising the step of supplying a selected encryption/decryption algorithm to the encryption means and the decryption means.

14. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 9, wherein appending the seed value to the encrypted document data so as to communicate the seed value with the encrypted document data to the associated document processing device.

15. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 14 wherein the seed value is appended as header data of the encrypted document data.

16. The method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 9 wherein in the seed value is a 32 bit sequence.

17. A computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents comprising:

instructions for receiving a document processing request, which document processing request includes document data representative of an unencrypted, electronic document;

instructions for receiving a seed value;

instructions for generating a random number from the seed value;

instructions for encrypting the document data in accordance with the random number so as to generate encrypted document data;

instructions for communicating the encrypted document data to an associated document processing device; and

instructions for communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device.

19. The computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 17, further comprising instructions for encrypting the seed value in accordance with the random number so as to generate an encrypted seed value.

22. The computer-readable medium of instructions with computer-readable instructions stored thereon for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 17, wherein the means adapted for communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device includes means adapted for appending the seed value to the encrypted document data so as to communicate the seed value with the encrypted document data to the associated document processing device.

23. A computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents comprising the steps of:

receiving a document processing request, which document processing request includes document data representative of an unencrypted, electronic document;

receiving a seed value;

generating a random number from the seed value;

encrypting the document data in accordance with the random number so as to generate encrypted document data;

communicating the encrypted document data to an associated document processing device; and

communicating the seed value to the associated document processing device.

24. The computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 23, further comprising the steps of:

receiving the encrypted document data and the seed value at the associated document processing device;

generating the random number from the seed value;

decrypting the encrypted document data to re-generate the document data; and

commencing a selected document processing operation on the document data.

25. The computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 23, further comprising the step of encrypting the seed value in accordance with the random number so as to generate an encrypted seed value.

26. The computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 24, further comprising the step of decrypting the encrypted seed value.

27. The computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 24, further comprising the step of supplying a selected encryption/decryption algorithm to the encryption means and the decryption means.

28. The computer-implemented method for secure communication of electronic documents of claim 23, wherein appending the seed value to the encrypted document data so as to communicate the seed value with the encrypted document data to the associated document processing device.