Digital safe

• US 8,140,847 B1
• Filed: 09/18/2008
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jianqing Wu
• Original Assignee: Jianqing Wu
• Inventors: Wu, Jianqing
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US12/233,575
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 713/175
• US Class Current: 713/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/645 using a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

An online file lodging system or digital safe, which comprises plural safes or safe user accounts, is disclosed for securely storing highly confidential files. A user of the system can create an individual safe by using account management tool. The system has a web-based use interface, from which the user can upload files for storage with detailed tracking information, grant the right of access to the owner of another safe, and generate authenticity certificate for proving the uploading time and the substance of the file in a future time.

Claims

1. A file storing system, comprising a server having a network interface, and at least one client computer having a network interface, both the server and the at least one client computer being connected to the Internet, the system comprising:

means for creating a user account as a safe by a first user by using safe name and password;

means for generating an uploading form with one or two input boxes, each for accepting an encryption key;

means for uploading a file in the safe of the first user;

means for encrypting the file on the server by using one or two encryption keys that the first user has provided and deleting the encryption keys upon the finishing of the encryption on the server;

means for saving the uploaded and encrypted file along with tracking information on the server;

means for showing the file among other files in the safe of the first user;

means for showing any of the files and deleting any of the files in the safe of the first user;

means for generating a file-downloading page containing one or two input boxes for accepting an encryption key for a selected file, decrypting the selected file on the server by using the keys that the first user has provided, and downloading the selected file to the client computer of the first user;

means for granting right of access to at least one file in the safe of the first user to a safe of a second user; and

means for allowing the second user to access the at least one file of the first user, select a file from the at least one file of the first user, and send proper encryption keys to the server, descrypting the selected file on the server, and downloading the selected file to the client computer of the second user.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the uploading form contains an input box for accepting a hint for each of the one or two encryption keys and the file-downloading page displays the hint that has been entered for each of the one or two encryption keys and has been saved on the server.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for allowing the first user to get an authenticity certificate for each of the files in the safe of the first user, the authenticity certificate containing file uploading time, file size, and file description.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for authorizing the safe of the second user to retrieve from the server an authenticity certificate for the at least one file or the means for sending an authenticity certificate to the second user by email.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for making a file in the first safe to be globally accessible so that any user of the system can access it and any user having proper encryption key can decrypt and download the file.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for maintaining access histories for each of the files in each of the safes on the server.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for tracking the access history of each encrypted file on the server and determining if the right of access to each of the encrypted files has expired or revoked.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for downloading a program for decrypting standalone files that have been encrypted using the same algorithm and the encryption keys in uploading the files to the server.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising means for ordering a hard copy of at least one file together with an authenticity certificate certifying the file description, uploading time, and file size.

10. A method of storing confidential files on a server and client system for future proof of the substance and creation time of the files, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a user account as a safe by a first user using a safe name and safe password;

generating an uploading form by the server containing one or two input boxes for accepting an encryption key;

uploading a file from the client computer of the first user;

encrypting the file by using the one or two encryption keys that the first user has provided and deleting the one or two encryption keys upon the finishing of encryption;

saving the uploaded and encrypted file along with tracking information on the server;

sending a verification page for the encrypted file, prompting the first user to enter one or two encryption keys corresponding to the one or two encryption keys used in encrypting the file in uploading, sending the encryption keys to the server and decrypting the uploaded file on the server by using the received encryption keys and deleting the encryption keys upon the finishing of the decryption, downloading the decrypted file to the client computer of the first user for inspection, and marking the uploaded file as a verified file upon successful verification;

sending a file summary page to the client computer of the first user to display file information about the files in the safe of the first user, the file summary page containing file descriptions, uploading times and file sizes;

displaying any of the files, and deleting any of the files in the safe of the first user; and

generating a file-downloading page containing one or two input boxes for accepting an encryption key for a selected file, sending to the server proper encryption keys correspondent to the encryption keys used in encrypting the selected file during uploading, decrypting the selected file on the server by using the received encryption keys, deleting the encryption keys upon the finishing of decryption, and downloading the selected file to the client computer of the first user.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the steps of granting right of access to at least one file of the safes of the first user to a safe of a second user, enabling the second user to access the file of the first user, decrypt the file on the server, and download the file to the client computer of the second user.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of allowing the first user to get an authenticity certificate for any of the encrypted files in the safe of the first user, wherein the authenticity certificate contains file uploading time, file size, and file description.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising a step of authorizing the safe of the second user to retrieve an authenticity certificate for the files or a step of sending the authenticity to the second user by email.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of making a file in the safe of the first user to be globally accessible so that any user of the system can access the file and any user having proper encryption keys can decrypt and download the file.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of maintaining access histories for each of the encrypted files for each of the safes on the server.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of tracking the usage of rights of access granted to a file and determining if the right of access to the file has expired or revoked.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the uploading form contains an input box for accepting a hint for each of the one or two encryption keys and the file-downloading page displays each hint that has been entered for each of the encryption keys and has been saved on the server.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of ordering by the second user a hard copy of files granted to the second user, together with an authenticity certificate certifying to the file descriptions, uploading times, and file sizes.

19. A computer program product for use in operating file storage system comprising a server and at least one client computer, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied on the medium, the computer program code further comprising:

program code for creating a user account as a safe by using a safe name or account number and safe password;

program code for generating an uploading form with one or two input boxes for accepting an encryption key;

program code for uploading files to the server;

program code for encrypting files on the server by using one or two encryption keys that the first user has provided and deleting the encryption keys upon the finishing of encryption;

program code for saving the uploaded file with tracking information on the server;

program code for sending a verification page for an encrypted file, prompting the first user to enter one or two encryption keys correspondent to the keys used in uploading the file, sending the user-entered encryption keys to the server, decrypting the uploaded file on the server by using the received encryption keys, downloading the decrypted file to the client computer of the first user for inspection, prompting the first user to indicate if the uploaded file is good, and marking the uploaded file as a verified file upon successful verification;

program code for sending a page for displaying the files, and deleting the files in any safe on the server;

program code for generating a file-downloading page containing one or two input boxes for accepting an encryption key for a selected file, decrypting the selected file on the server using the encryption keys the first user has provided, and downloading the selected file to the client computer of the first user;

program code for granting right of access to at least one file of the first user to a safe of a second user; and

program code for enabling the second user to access the at least one file of the first user and select a file for downloading, sending to the server one or two encryption keys correspondent to the encryption keys used in encrypting the file in uploading, decrypting the file on the server using the received encryption keys, and downloading the uploaded file to the client computer of the second user.

20. A computer program product of claim 19 further comprising program code for decrypting standalone files that have been encrypted using the same algorithm and the encryption keys in uploading the files to the server.