METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SENDER-CONTROLLED MESSAGING AND CONTENT SHARING

• US 20180013707A1
• Filed: 09/06/2017
• Published: 01/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Private Giant
• Original Assignee: Private Giant
• Inventors: Murphy, Shaun, Murphy, Charles, Johnson, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 10,135,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/08 Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting key management in a packet data network H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy

Abstract

An access-control device that controls access to encrypted messages. During operation, the access-control device can receive an access key for a corrupted message, and can receive a cover message digest associated with the corrupted message. The access-control device stores the access key in association with the cover message digest, and stores the cover message digest in a block chain. A respective block of the block chain includes at least one cover message digest, and a hash value of a previous block of the block chain.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a computing device, a data object being published by a user;

generating a partial message that includes a subset of the data object; and

sending the partial message to an intended recipient of the data object, without first receiving a request for the data object from the intended recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the intended recipient includes one or more of:

a remote personal computing device;

a remote personal storage device; and

a storage server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an access key that includes at least one section of the data object that are not in the partial message; and

sending the access key to an access-control device that controls access to the data object, or to a storage server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the partial message involves:

identifying, from the data object, one or more data blocks that are to be made corrupt;

extracting a segment of a respective data block to make the respective data block corrupt; and

combining the corrupt data blocks to form the partial message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a cover message for the data object; and

sending the cover message to the intended recipient, which facilitates the intended recipient to obtain the data object based on the cover message.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a digest from the cover message; and

sending the digest to an access-control device that controls access to the data object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the cover message includes one or more of:

an email message;

a short message service (SMS) message;

an instant messaging (IM) message;

a message posted on a social media service; and

an audio recording.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising encrypting the data object using a predetermined encryption key to produce an encrypted message;

wherein generating the partial message involves;

obtaining the at least one sections from the encrypted message; and

generating the partial message to include the at least one sections of the encrypted message.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining a data object being published by a user;

generating a partial message that includes a subset of the data object; and

sending the partial message to an intended recipient of the data object, without first receiving a request for the data object from the intended recipient.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the intended recipient includes one or more of:

a remote personal computing device;

a remote personal storage device; and

a storage server.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

generating an access key that includes at least one section of the data object that are not in the partial message; and

sending the access key to an access-control device that controls access to the data object, or to a storage server.

12. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating the partial message involves:

identifying, from the data object, one or more data blocks that are to be made corrupt;

extracting a segment of a respective data block to make the respective data block corrupt; and

combining the corrupt data blocks to form the partial message.

13. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

generating a cover message for the data object; and

sending the cover message to the intended recipient, which facilitates the intended recipient to obtain the data object based on the cover message.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

generating a digest from the cover message; and

sending the digest to an access-control device that controls access to the data object.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the cover message includes one or more of:

an email message;

a short message service (SMS) message;

an instant messaging (IM) message;

a message posted on a social media service; and

an audio recording.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising encrypting the data object using a predetermined encryption key to produce an encrypted message;

wherein generating the partial message involves;

obtaining the at least one sections from the encrypted message; and

generating the partial message to include the at least one sections of the encrypted message.

17. A method comprising:

receiving, by an access-control device, an access key for a data object being shared with at least one intended recipient, and a digest associated with the data object;

storing the access key and the digest in a look-up repository;

in response to receiving a request for the data object from a remote device, obtaining a second digest from the request; and

responsive to validating the second digest, returning the access key to the remote device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein storing the digest further involves storing the digest in a block chain, wherein a respective block of the block chain includes at least one digest, and a hash value of a previous block of the block chain.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the access-control device is a member of a distributed hash table, and wherein the method further comprises:

responsive to storing the digest in the block chain, synchronizing the block chain with at least one other member device of the distributed hash table.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein returning the access key to the remote device involves:

performing a lookup operation, using the digest as input, to obtain an access key that includes the remainder of the data object; and

returning the access key to the remote device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein validating the second digest involves performing a lookup operation in the block chain to determine whether the second digest exists in the block chain.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the second digest does not exist in the block chain, returning a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) message.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the second digest exists in the block chain, returning an acknowledgement (ACK) message.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising, responsive to determining that the second digest exists in a block of the block chain:

validating the block; and

responsive to determining that the block is valid, returning an acknowledgement (ACK) message.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

responsive to determining that the block is not valid, returning a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) message.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein validating the block involves one or more of:

determining whether a neighboring block in the block chain includes a hash value that matches the block'"'"'s hash value; and

determining whether the block and a corresponding block of a remote access-control device have matching hash values.

27. An access-control device, comprising:

a communication module operable to receive an access key for a data object being shared with at least one intended recipient, and a digest associated with the data object;

a storage device operable to store the access key and the digest in a look-up repository;

a digest-lookup module operable to obtain a second digest from a request received from a remote device for the data object;

a digest-validation module operable to validate the second digest; and

an authorization module operable to return the access key to the remote device in response to the second digest being valid.

28. The access-control device of claim 27, wherein the storage device is further operable to store the digest in a block chain, wherein a respective block of the block chain includes at least one digest, and a hash value of a previous block of the block chain.

29. The access-control device of claim 27, wherein the access-control device is a member of a distributed hash table, and

wherein the storage device is further operable to, in response to storing the digest in the block chain, synchronize the block chain with at least one other member device of the distributed hash table.

30. The access-control device of claim 27, wherein authorization module is further operable to performing a lookup operation, using the digest as input, to obtain an access key that includes the remainder of the data object.

31. The access-control device of claim 27, wherein the digest-validation module is further operable to perform a lookup operation in the block chain to determine whether the second digest exists in the block chain.

32. The access-control device of claim 31, wherein the digest-validation module is further operable to:

return a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) message, responsive to determining that the second digest does not exist in the block chain.

33. The access-control device of claim 31, wherein the digest-validation module is further operable to:

return an acknowledgement (ACK) message, responsive to determining that the second digest exists in the block chain.

34. The access-control device of claim 31, wherein the digest-validation module is further operable to, responsive to determining that the second digest exists in a block of the block chain:

validate the block; and

return an acknowledgement (ACK) message responsive to determining that the block is valid.

35. The access-control device of claim 34, wherein the digest-validation module is further operable to:

return a negative-acknowledgement (NACK) message responsive to determining that the block is not valid.

36. The access-control device of claim 34, wherein validating the block involves one or more of:

determining whether a neighboring block in the block chain includes a hash value that matches the block'"'"'s hash value; and

determining whether the block and a corresponding block of a remote access-control device have matching hash values.