Method for selective encryption within documents
First Claim
1. A method for selective encryption within a document, said method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a portion of the document selected and marked for encryption, said selected portion of the document consisting of plaintext;
encrypting the detected portion of the document selected for encryption as ciphertext;
displaying the document with the selected portion of the document encrypted;
detecting an attempt to access the encrypted portion of document;
decrypting the encrypted portion of the document with a proper decryption key, wherein said decrypting comprises decrypting the encrypted portion of the document in response to presentation of required data by the accessor, and wherein the required data comprises the proper decryption key, a name of the accessor, and an employee number of the accessor; and
displaying the portion of the document as decrypted.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention allows the user (author or creator) of a document to specify that certain portions of a document be selected for encryption while other portions of the document remain displayed as created. The user could employ a standard word processing editor technique to highlight (or swipe) portions of a document that the user desires to be encrypted. The highlighted portion would then be ‘tagged’ with a surrounding attribute indicating to the word processor that this highlighted portion of the document is to be encrypted. This process is similar to the existing word processor capability to highlight areas on a document and then assign rich text attributes, such as BOLD, ITALICS, etc., to those areas. With proper authorization, any encrypted portion of a document would be displayed as part of the document. Without proper authorization, the display of the document would only contain the unencrypted portions of the document.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for selective encryption within a document, said method comprising the steps of:
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detecting a portion of the document selected and marked for encryption, said selected portion of the document consisting of plaintext; encrypting the detected portion of the document selected for encryption as ciphertext; displaying the document with the selected portion of the document encrypted; detecting an attempt to access the encrypted portion of document; decrypting the encrypted portion of the document with a proper decryption key, wherein said decrypting comprises decrypting the encrypted portion of the document in response to presentation of required data by the accessor, and wherein the required data comprises the proper decryption key, a name of the accessor, and an employee number of the accessor; and displaying the portion of the document as decrypted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 14, 15)
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4. A computer program product for selective encryption within a document, said computer program product comprising:
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a computer readable storage device; first instructions for detecting a portion of the document selected and marked for encryption, said selected portion of the document consisting of plaintext; second instructions for encrypting the detected portion of the document selected for encryption as ciphertext; third instructions for instructions for displaying the document with the selected portion of the document encrypted; fourth instructions for decrypting the encrypted portion of the document with a proper decryption key, wherein said instructions for decrypting comprises instruction for decrypting the encrypted portion of the document in response to presentation of required data by the accessor, and wherein the required data comprises the proper decryption key, a name of the accessor, and an employee number of the accessor; and fifth instructions for displaying the portion of the document as decrypted, wherein the first instructions, the second instructions, the third instructions, the fourth instruction, and the fifth instructions are stored on the computer readable storage device for execution by a processor of a data processing system. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17)
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Specification