METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAINTAINING SECURE DATA INPUT AND OUTPUT

• US 20100077360A1
• Filed: 09/25/2009
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Carson Kaan, D. David Nason, Jason M. Smith, John A. Painter, John E. Easton, William J. Heaton
• Original Assignee: Carson Kaan, D. David Nason, Jason M. Smith, John A. Painter, John E. Easton, William J. Heaton
• Inventors: NASON, D. DAVID, PAINTER, JOHN A., KAAN, CARSON, HEATON, WILLIAM J., EASTON, JOHN E., SMITH, JASON M.
• Application Number:
  US12/567,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20100077360A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/856
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/82 Protecting input, output or interconnection devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Methods and systems for enhancing the security of data during input and output on a client computer system are provided to prevent attempts by unauthorized code to access, intercept, and/or modify data. Example embodiments provide a plurality of obfuscation techniques and security enhanced drivers that use these obfuscation techniques to prohibit unauthorized viewing/receiving of valid data. When the drivers are used together with the various obfuscation techniques, the security enhanced drivers provide mechanisms for “scheduling” the content of the storage areas used to store the data so that valid data is not available to unauthorized recipients. When unauthorized recipients attempt to access the “data,” they perceive or receive obfuscated data. The obfuscation techniques described include “copy-in,” “replace and restore,” and “in-place replacement” de-obfuscation/re-obfuscation techniques. In one embodiment, a security enhanced display driver, a security enhanced mouse driver, a security enhanced keyboard driver, and a security enhanced audio driver are provided. To complement the security enhancements, the methods and systems also provide for a watchdog mechanism to ensure that the driver is functioning as it should be and various user interface techniques for denoting security on a display device.

Claims

1. A method in a computing environment for denoting security levels associated with data rendered to a display, comprising:

associating security levels of data with a region of the display; and

altering an appearance of the display to denote the security level associated with data displayed within the display region.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the display region is a region selected from a group of regions comprising an operating system desktop, a window within the desktop, an alternative display region and an arbitrary region of the display.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the level of security is represented by a value associated with the display region.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the security level value is provided by an application rendering for association with a region of the display.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the security level value is stored for subsequent for association with a region of the display.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating security levels of data with a region of the display operates in a environment containing a plurality of display regions.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating security levels of data with a region of the display operates in a environment containing a plurality of secure display regions.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating security levels of data with a region of the display operates in a environment containing both secure and non-secure display regions.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein an display cursor is used to denote the security level associated with the display region.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the cursor moves between the secure and non-secure display regions based on user input.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising altering a color of the cursor based on the level of security within the display region in which the cursor is positioned.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising altering a shape of the cursor based on the level of security within the display region in which the cursor is positioned.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising altering a representative image of the cursor based on the level of security within the display region in which the cursor is positioned.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an image on an operating system desktop to denote the security level.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the display region is an operating system desktop, the method further comprising altering a desktop color based on the security level.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein altering the appearance of the display comprises using a border around at least a portion of the display region to denote the associated security level.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying the border with a selected color based on associated security level.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying the border with a selected width based on associated security level.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying the border with a selected image pattern based on associated security level.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein altering the appearance of the display comprises altering an existing element of a user interface on the display.