INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20140082343A1
• Filed: 09/10/2013
• Published: 03/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: SAITO, Shunsuke
• Granted Patent: US 9,811,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4408 Boot device selection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an information processing apparatus effective in detecting an unauthorized use or misuse of the information processing apparatus from when the OS is shut down to when the OS is started. An information processing apparatus controlled by an operating system comprises: an operation history generating section which creates an operation history of the information processing apparatus after the operating system is shut down before the operating system is started; and a storage unit which stores information including the created operation history.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus controlled by an operating system, comprising:

an operation history generating section which creates an operation history of the information processing apparatus after the operating system is shut down before the operating system is started; and

a storage unit which stores information including the created operation history.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage unit stores firmware to be started before the operating system is started,

the operation history is stored in the storage unit after the firmware is started, and

the operation history is information which is associated with at least:

information indicating a specific part of the information processing apparatus;

information indicating a starting step of the firmware; and

a state of the specific part.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the information represented by the operation history includes at least one of:

information about On/Off operation of a power supply of the information processing apparatus;

information about operation of inputting a password on a pre-boot screen;

information about operation of changing a boot device;

information about operation of switching to a setup screen of UEFI;

information about a temperature of a battery;

information about a temperature of a CPU; and

information about power consumption.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit which displays notification information based on the information about the operation history stored in the storage unit.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operation history at the moment of shut down stored in the storage unit is compared with the operation history at the moment of start of the operating system, and when variation between the recorded contents of the respective operation histories exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the display unit displays information indicating presence of an unauthorized use.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the respective contents of the operation history from when the operating system is shut down to when the operating system is started which are stored in the storage unit are checked, and when each content is in a predetermined pattern, the display unit displays information indicating a misuse.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a communication section which communicates information including the operation history in the storage unit to an outside server after the operating system is started.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when the operation history information agrees with a predetermined pattern, the information processing apparatus receives warning information from said outside server.