Encryption on computing device

• US 9,104,889 B1
• Filed: 05/07/2014
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Data Trak Solutions NA Incorporated (Data TRAK Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Data Trak Solutions NA Incorporated (Data TRAK Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kiswani, Rafiq, Almajali, Sufyan
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodchild, William
• Application Number:
  US14/271,883
• Time in Patent Office: 461 Days
• Field of Search: 380/280
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 1/00 Apparatus or methods whereby a given sequence of signs, e.g. an intelligible text, is transformed into an unintelligible sequence of signs by transposing the signs or groups of signs or by replacing them by others according to a predetermined system cryptographic typewriters G09C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0492 by using a location-limited connection, e.g. near-field communication or limited proximity of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]

Abstract

A first component of a cryptographic key is received from a user via a user interface of a user computing device. A second component of the cryptographic key is received via a short-range communication interface that communicatively couples the user computing device to a physically separate storage device. The cryptographic key is generated based at least on the first component and the second component. The cryptographic key is then used to encrypt and/or decrypt data.

Claims

1. A network server comprising:

a communication interface to communicatively couple the network to a user computing device via a communication network;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon a plurality of instructions that implement a data protection software module which, when executed on one or more processors of the user computing device, causes the user device to;

receive a first component of a cryptographic key from a user via a user interface of the user computing device,

receive a second component of the cryptographic key via a short-range communication interface that communicatively couples the user computing device to a physically separate storage device, and

generate a cryptographic key based at least on the first component and the second component, for use in encrypting and/or decrypting user-selected data;

the network server further comprising;

processing hardware configured;

to provide an instance of the data protection software module to the user computing device,

generate the second component of the cryptographic key,

provide the second component of the cryptographic key to the user computing device for storage on the storage device receive the first component of the cryptographic key from the user computing device,

generate the cryptographic key using the first component and the second component of the cryptographic key, and

generate key verification data using the cryptographic key for storage on the storage device, including (i) randomly generate first control data, (ii) encrypt the first control data using the cryptographic key to generate second control data, and (iii) provide the first control data and the second control data to the user computing device along with the second component of the cryptographic key.

2. The network server of claim 1, wherein to generate the cryptographic key, the processing hardware is configured to append one of the first and the second component of the cryptographic key to the other one of the first and the second component of the cryptographic key.