Substitution cipher text-encoding and un-encoding software and method

• US 20080112559A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Technology LLC (Avaya Incorporated)
• Inventors: Dyne, James F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/28
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 1/02 by using a ciphering code in chart form

Abstract

A method or computer program for encoding or un-encoding data receives a keyword string and removes characters in the keyword string which are not in a pre-approved character set and duplicate characters to form a validated keyword. The validated keyword is sequenced with un-used characters of the pre-approved character set and formed into a cipher grid. Clear text may be encoded using an algorithm in combination with the cipher grid, and encoded text may be un-encoded to form clear text using a reverse algorithm in combination with the cipher grid.

Claims

1. A method of encoding or un-encoding characters comprising:

receiving an input keyword string;

removing superfluous characters in the input keyword string which are not in a pre-approved character set to thereby form a truncated keyword string; and

removing duplicate characters in the truncated keyword string to form a validated keyword.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said removing duplicate characters step includes keeping the first occurrence of a character in the truncated keyword string and removing any further occurrence of the same character in the truncated keyword string.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said pre-approved characters set includes a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a fixed set of non-alphabetic and non-numeral special characters.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the validated keyword to the pre-approved character set and forming a subset of missing characters which are characters appearing in the pre-approved character set and not appearing in the validated keyword; and

forming a cipher string by sequencing the characters of the validated keyword with the characters of the subset of missing characters.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said forming step forms the cipher string with the validated keyword appearing first followed by the subset of missing characters.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

forming a cipher grid by forming a matrix having a first number of columns and a second number of rows;

placing one character of the cipher string sequentially into each column and row position.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the number of columns is different than the number of rows.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving clear text;

removing any character in the clear text which is not a character in the pre-approved character set; and

developing an initial number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by locating each character in the clear text in the cipher grid and replacing the character with an initial number of the grid position where the character was located, wherein the initial number of each grid position is unique; and

generating an encoded number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by modifying the initial number sequence.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the initial number of each grid position is assigned in numerical order starting in the first row and first column of the cipher grid proceeding left to right and proceeding from up to down to the last row and last column of the cipher grid.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

converting the encoded number sequence into encoded text by replacing each number of the encoded number sequence with a character located in the encoded number'"'"'s position in the cipher grid; and

publishing the encoded text.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating step includes evaluating the initial number sequence in pairs, and modifying a pair using a first modification rule if the pair is located in a same column of the cipher grid, and modifying pairs not in a same column using a different modification rule or rules.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating step includes evaluating the initial number sequence in pairs, and modifying a pair using a first modification rule if the pair is located in a same row of the cipher grid, and modifying pairs not in a same row using a different modification rule or rules.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating step includes evaluating the initial number sequence in pairs, and modifying a pair using a first modification rule if the pair is located in a same column of the cipher grid, and modifying a pair using a second modification rule, different from the first modification rule, if the pair is located in a same row of the cipher grid.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

modifying a pair using a third modification rule, different from the first and second modification rules, if the pair is not located in a same column and is not located in same row of the cipher grid.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving encoded text;

removing any character in the encoded text which is not a character in the pre-approved character set; and

developing an initial number sequence to represent the characters of the encoded text by locating each character in the encoded text in the cipher grid and replacing the character with an initial number of the grid position where the character was located, wherein the initial number of each grid position is unique; and

generating an un-encoded number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by modifying the initial number sequence.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

converting the un-encoded number sequence into clear text by replacing each number of the un-encoded number sequence with a character located in the un-encoded number'"'"'s position in the cipher grid; and

publishing the clear text.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said generating step includes evaluating the initial number sequence in pairs, and modifying a pair using a first modification rule if the pair is located in a same column of the cipher grid, and modifying pairs not in a same column using a different modification rule or rules.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein said generating step includes evaluating the initial number sequence in pairs, and modifying a pair using a first modification rule if the pair is located in a same column of the cipher grid, and modifying a pair using a second modification rule, different from the first modification rule, if the pair is located in a same row of the cipher grid.

19. A computer-readable medium on which is stored a computer program for encoding or un-encoding data, the computer program comprising instructions which, upon being executed, cause a computing device to perform a process of:

receiving an input keyword string;

removing superfluous characters in the input keyword string which are not in a pre-approved character set to thereby form a truncated keyword string; and

removing duplicate characters in the truncated keyword string to form a validated keyword.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising:

comparing the validated keyword to the pre-approved character set and forming a subset of missing characters which are characters appearing in the pre-approved character set and not appearing in the validated keyword; and

forming a cipher string by sequencing the characters of the validated keyword with the characters of the subset of missing characters.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising:

forming a cipher grid by forming a matrix having a first number of columns and a second number of rows;

placing one character of the cipher string sequentially into each column and row position.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving clear text;

removing any character in the clear text which is not a character in the pre-approved character set; and

developing an initial number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by locating each character in the clear text in the cipher grid and replacing the character with an initial number of the grid position where the character was located, wherein the initial number of each grid position is unique; and

generating an encoded number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by modifying the initial number sequence.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22, further comprising:

converting the encoded number sequence into encoded text by replacing each number of the encoded number sequence with a character located in the encoded number'"'"'s position in the cipher grid; and

publishing the encoded text.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving encoded text;

removing any character in the encoded text which is not a character in the pre-approved character set; and

developing an initial number sequence to represent the characters of the encoded text by locating each character in the encoded text in the cipher grid and replacing the character with an initial number of the grid position where the character was located, wherein the initial number of each grid position is unique; and

generating an un-encoded number sequence to represent the characters of the clear text by modifying the initial number sequence.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising:

converting the un-encoded number sequence into clear text by replacing each number of the un-encoded number sequence with a character located in the un-encoded number'"'"'s position in the cipher grid; and

publishing the clear text.