Managing the progressive legible obfuscation and de-obfuscation of public and quasi-public broadcast messages

• US 8,914,859 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2011
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Erickson, Thomas D., Levine, David W.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEHNI, GHAZAL B
• Application Number:
  US13/290,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20130117830A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• US Class Current: 726/6
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel

Abstract

Obfuscating a message, in one aspect, may include detecting sensitive information in a message to be broadcast into public or quasi-public computer network environment; replacing the sensitive information in the message with a representation that preserves general aspects of the sensitive information and a user interface element, the user interface element for enabling a viewer of the message to request access to details of the sensitive information; and transmitting the replaced message for broadcasting into the public or quasi-public computer network environment. De-obfuscating the message, in one aspect, may include authenticating one or more viewers or receivers of the message and based on the authentication, presenting details associated with the sensitive information.

Claims

1. A method for obfuscating elements in a message, comprising:

detecting one or more sensitive information elements in a message to be broadcast into public or quasi-public computer network environment;

replacing, by a processor, said one or more sensitive information elements in the message with a representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements and a user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements; and

transmitting the replaced message for broadcasting into the public or quasi-public computer network environment,

the representation that preserves the general aspect of said one or more sensitive information element being meaningfully related to said one or more sensitive information element in a less detailed form,

at least one of the sensitive information elements represented by a plurality of terms that are in progressively generalized form related to meaning of the sensitive information element, the user interface element associated with a particular sensitive information element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation is a visible representation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said representation is selected from a hierarchy of generalized information associated with said one or more sensitive information elements.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements is a link selectable by said receiver.

5. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element presented in the replaced message;

authenticating said one or more receivers; and

providing full details of said one or more sensitive information elements to said one or more receivers if said one or more viewers are authenticated.

6. The method of claim 5, further including:

registering one or more users with one or more credentials, wherein identifiers of said one or more users are stored with said one or more credentials; and

said authenticating one or more receivers includes receiving one or more credentials associated with said one or more receivers and checking said one or more credentials associated with said one or more receivers with the stored one or more user identifiers and credentials.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element presented in the replaced message;

authenticating said one or more receivers based on a credential provided by said one or more receivers; and

presenting information selected from a hierarchy of generalized information associated with said one or more sensitive information elements, based on the credential.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensitive information elements include information predetermined as being sensitive.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensitive information elements include full location address, telephone number, individual'"'"'s name, time, or combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements is generated dynamically based on one or more rules at the time the message is composed for broadcast.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements is retrieved from a pre-generated database storing the representation associated with said one or more sensitive information elements.

12. A system for obfuscating elements in a message, comprising:

a processor;

an accounts module operable to generate credentials for users and register the users with associated credentials;

an obfuscating module operable to execute on the processor and further operable to generate an obfuscated form of the message by replacing one or more sensitive information elements in the message with a representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements and a user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements; and

a de-obfuscating module operable to receive a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element, the de-obfuscating module further operable to authenticate said one or more receivers, and further operable to present details of said one or more sensitive information elements to said one or more receivers if said one or more receivers are authenticated;

wherein the user interface element comprises a graphical icon coupled to the representation, and

wherein the representation that preserves the general aspect of said one or more sensitive information element being meaningfully related to said one or more sensitive information element in a less detailed form,

at least one of the sensitive information elements represented by a plurality of terms that are in progressively generalized form related to meaning of the sensitive information element, the user interface element associated with a particular sensitive information element.

13. The system of claim 12, further including a database storing a hierarchy of progressively generalized representations associated with said one or more sensitive information elements, wherein the obfuscating module selects said representation from the hierarchy of progressively generalized representations.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the obfuscating module dynamically generates said representation based on one or more rules.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the de-obfuscating module presents different levels of said details associated with said one or more sensitive information elements based on authentication levels of said one or more receivers.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the obfuscating module selects said representation based on one or more rules.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the de-obfuscating module presents said details associated with one or more sensitive information elements from a hierarchy of progressively generalized representations.

18. A computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method for obfuscating elements in a message, comprising:

detecting one or more sensitive information elements in a message to be broadcast into public or quasi-public computer network environment;

replacing, by a processor, said one or more sensitive information elements in the message with a representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements and a user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements; and

transmitting the replaced message for broadcasting into the public or quasi-public computer network environment.

the representation that preserves the general aspect of said one or more sensitive information element being meaningfully related to the message in a less detailed form,

at least one of the sensitive information elements represented by a plurality of terms that are in progressively generalized form related to meaning of the sensitive information element, the user interface element associated with a particular sensitive information element.

19. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, wherein said representation is selected from a hierarchy of generalized information associated with said one or more sensitive information elements.

20. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, wherein the user interface element for enabling a receiver of the message to request access to details of said one or more sensitive information elements is a link selectable by said receiver.

21. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, further including:

receiving a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element presented in the replaced message;

authenticating said one or more receivers; and

providing full details of said one or more sensitive information elements to said one or more receivers if said one or more viewers are authenticated.

22. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se of claim 21, further including:

registering one or more users with one or more credentials, wherein identifiers of said one or more users are stored with said one or more credentials; and

said authenticating one or more receivers includes receiving one or more credentials associated with said one or more receivers and checking said one or more credentials associated with said one or more receivers with the stored one or more user identifiers and credentials.

23. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, further including:

receiving a request from one or more receivers for details of said one or more sensitive information elements via the user interface element presented in the replaced message;

authenticating said one or more receivers based on a credential provided by said one or more receivers; and

presenting information selected from a hierarchy of generalized information associated with said one or more sensitive information elements, based on the credential.

24. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, wherein the one or more sensitive information elements include information predetermined as being sensitive.

25. The computer readable storage medium, excluding a signal per se, of claim 18, wherein the representation that preserves a general aspect of said one or more sensitive information elements is generated dynamically based on one or more rules at the time the message is composed for broadcast.