METHOD FOR ENCRYPTING INFORMATION AND DEVICE FOR REALIZATION OF THE METHOD

• US 20080080709A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valentin A. Michtchenko
• Original Assignee: Antibody Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Verzhbalovich, Dzmitry, Michtchenko, Valentin, Vilanski, Yuri, Zakharau, Uladzimir
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0618 Block ciphers, i.e. encrypting groups of characters of a plain text message using fixed encryption transformation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/065 Encryption by serially and continuously modifying data stream elements, e.g. stream cipher systems, RC4, SEAL or A5/3

Abstract

The cryptographic system and method for securing data from unauthorized access includes, in one embodiment, an iterative probabilistic cipher for converting plaintext into ciphertext comprising at least two components, a core and a flag. A corresponding key and the core and flag may be output in one or more data channels. For each round of encryption additional keys, cores and flags can be generated. Unless all keys, cores and flags are known, no recovery of the plaintext can be possible.

Claims

1. A method for encrypting data comprising:

(a) receiving plaintext corresponding to data to be encrypted;

(b) determining a number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed on the data;

(c) repeating steps 1-3 below until n rounds of encryption are completed;

(1) damaging at least a portion of the data to create ciphertext comprising at least two components corresponding to the encrypted plaintext, wherein the at least two components include a core and a flag;

(2) generating a key for each damaging incident corresponding to the core and flag created in the current round of encryption;

(3) storing the key, core and flag from the current round of encryption in one or more data channels; and

(d) outputting ciphertext corresponding to the n_th round of encryption, the outputted ciphertext including the one or more cores and one or more flags corresponding to each round of encryption, along with each key associated to the one or more cores and one or more flags, wherein each key, core and flag are required to decrypt the ciphertext.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plaintext includes data selected from the group consisting of text, images, video, data files, data streams, and digital media.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is determined randomly.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is determined by the size of the plaintext.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is specified by a user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising parsing the plaintext into a plurality of data segments.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the damaging step includes parsing at least a portion of the data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the damaging step includes substituting at least a portion of the data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the damaging step includes transposing at least a portion of the data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the damaging step includes truncating at least a portion of the data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the damaging step includes adding null values to at least a portion of the data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing each key, core and flag from the current round of encryption in one or more data channels includes storing at least two components of the key, core and flag trio in different data channels.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing each key, core and flag from the current round of encryption in one or more data channels includes storing the key, core and flag in different data channels.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputting ciphertext corresponding to the nth round of encryption includes storing each key, core and flag into at least one data storage medium.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputting ciphertext corresponding to the nth round of encryption includes transmitting the each key, core and flag through at least one data transmission medium.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple encryptions of the same plaintext, using the same key, results in a different output each time.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the size of the key used for encryption is proportional to the number (n) of rounds of encryption.

18. A method of encrypting data comprising:

(a) encoding data corresponding to plaintext according to at least one of a plurality of file characteristics;

(b) determining a number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed on the encoded data based at least in part upon one of the plurality of file characteristics;

(c) determining a transformation characteristic based at least in part upon the number (n) of rounds of encryption;

(d) transforming the data according to the transformation characteristic;

(e) forming a core and a corresponding flag as a result of the current transformation of data;

(f) generating a tracking key corresponding to the core and flag;

(g) repeating steps (c)-(f) until n rounds of encryption are completed;

(h) outputting each tracking key along with the encrypted data having at least two parts, the first part including the flags from each round of encryption and the second part including the corresponding core, wherein each key, core and flag are required to decrypt the encrypted data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is determined randomly.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is determined by the size of the plaintext.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the number (n) of rounds of encryption to be performed is specified by a user.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the core transformed in one round and the corresponding flag are intermixed during at least one round of encryption.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein at least a portion of the flag is added to the core transformed in the current round of encryption during at least one encryption round.

24. A device for encrypting data, the device capable of performing one or more rounds of encryption, comprising:

an input unit for receiving plaintext corresponding to data to be encrypted;

a key database for computing a tracking key corresponding to the current round of encryption;

a transformation unit in communication with the input unit and key database for transforming data corresponding to the plaintext according to the tracking key computed during the current round of encryption, the transformed data having at least two parts, a core and a flag;

a core storage unit in communication with the transformation unit for accumulating cores corresponding to each round of encryption;

a flag storage unit in communication with the transformation unit for accumulating flags corresponding to each round of encryption; and

a decision making unit in communication with at least the core storage unit for determining whether additional rounds of encryption remain and for signaling the transformed data to return to the transformation unit for additional transformation should additional rounds of encryption remain; and

an output unit in communication with the core storage unit and flag storage unit for outputting ciphertext composed of each core and flag pair from each round of encryption and the tracking keys corresponding to each core and flag pair;

wherein each tracking key, core and flag is required to decrypt the ciphertext back into plaintext.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the input block communicates characteristics of the plaintext to the decision making unit such that a number (n) of rounds of encryption is based at least in part upon the length of the plaintext.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein the input block communicates characteristics of the plaintext to the key database such that the tracking key is based at least in part upon the characteristics of the plaintext.

27. The device of claim 24, further comprising a random number generator in communication with the key database and decision making unit for randomly selecting a number (n) of rounds of encryption.

28. The device of claim 24, further comprising a switchboard in communication with the decision making unit for receiving instructions and the core storage unit for receiving transformed data, the switchboard adapted to output the transformed data to the transformation unit unless instructions to terminate the encryption process are received from the decision making unit.