Systems and method for secure delivery of files to authorized recipients

• US 9,106,616 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carro, Fernando Incertis
• Primary Examiner(s): Ravetti, Dante
• Application Number:
  US11/996,633
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281254A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,393 Days
• Field of Search: 705/51, 705/16, 705/21, 705/59, 705/71, 380/44, 380/262, 380/278, 380/279
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• 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 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

By asking the recipient of an encrypted received file to read aloud a check text, retrieved from a network server, that address, or URL, is encoded within the file name of the encrypted received file, the system of the invention automatically verifies the identity of the recipient, confirms that the file has been received by the intended recipient, and then decrypts the file. The utterances of text spoken by the recipient are processed by means of an automatic speech recognition component. The system determines whether the spoken text corresponds to the check text presented to the reader, in which case the system applies an automatic speaker recognition algorithm to determine whether the person reciting the check text has voice characteristics matching those of the intended recipient based on a previous enrollment of the intended recipient'"'"'s voice to the system. When the system confirms the identity of the recipient, the decryption key is transmitted and the encrypted received file is automatically decrypted and displayed to the recipient. In a preferred embodiment, the system records and marks with a time-stamp the recipient'"'"'s reciting of the voice check text, so that it can later be compared to the intended recipient'"'"'s voice if the recipient repudiates reception.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a file to be transmitted by a sender computer of a sender in a computer network to a recipient computer of an intended recipient, said method comprising:

identifying, by the sender computer, a name of the file;

encrypting, by the sender computer, the named file using an encryption key;

receiving, by the sender computer from a server computer comprising a voice check server, a voiceprint identifier, wherein the received voiceprint identifier was assigned by the server computer to a voiceprint of the recipient, said voiceprint of the recipient having been created by the server computer from a recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice;

obtaining, by the sender computer, a voice check text;

creating, by the sender computer, a voice check ticket by combining the received voiceprint identifier, the encryption key, and the obtained voice check text;

transmitting, by the sender computer to the server computer comprising a voice check server, the created voice check ticket;

receiving, by the sender computer from the server computer comprising a voice check server, an address where the transmitted voice check ticket has been stored by the server computer comprising a voice check server;

encoding, by the sender computer, the received address within the identified name of the file by renaming the file with a filename comprising the name of the file and the received address merged together;

sending, by the sender computer to the recipient computer, the encrypted file whose name includes the encoded address, wherein the encrypted file whose name includes the encoded address enables the recipient computer to decrypt the encrypted file using the encryption key in the voice check ticket.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice check ticket consists of the voiceprint identifier, the encryption key, and the voice check text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

storing, by the sender computer, in a recipient voice record within a database of voice records at the sender computer, the voiceprint identifier and the recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the recipient voice record consists of a name of the recipient, the voiceprint identifier, and the recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said sending the encrypted file comprises sending the encrypted file as an attachment to an e-mail message from the sender to the recipient, and wherein the voice check text is a copy of a portion of e-mail text of the e-mail message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining, by the sender computer, the recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice; and

transmitting, by the sender computer to the server computer, the recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice to enable the server computer to create the voiceprint of the recipient.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the recording of the recipient'"'"'s voice is a recording of a part of a telephone conversation between the sender and the recipient.

2. A method for decoding an encrypted file, said method comprising:

receiving, by a recipient computer of a recipient from a sender computer of a sender, the encrypted file, wherein said encrypted file has a filename that includes an encoded address in the filename, wherein said encoded address identifies where a voice check ticket is stored, and wherein a prior name of the encrypted file and the encoded address are merged together within the filename;

receiving, by the recipient computer of the recipient from the sender computer of the sender the voice check ticket, wherein the received voice check ticket contains a voiceprint identifier, a encryption key and a voice check text;

parsing, by the recipient computer, the received encoded filename;

extracting, by the recipient computer, from the parsed encoded filename, the encoded address;

accessing, by the recipient computer, the voice check text from the voice check ticket at the address encoded in the parsed filename of the received file;

visually displaying, by the recipient computer, the received voice check text on a computer display of the recipient computer;

prompting, by the recipient computer, the recipient to read aloud the displayed voice check text;

receiving, by the recipient computer, an audio signal from a reading aloud by the prompted recipient of the displayed voice check text;

obtaining, by the recipient computer, an identifier of the recipient;

transmitting, by the recipient computer to a server computer comprising a voice check server, the received audio signal and the obtained recipient identifier of the recipient;

determining, by the recipient computer, that the recipient computer has received the encryption key from the received voice check ticket from the server computer, wherein the server computer comprising a voice check server has converted the transmitted audio signal to text and has compared the text to the voice text contained in the voice check ticket stored at the address, and has determined that the voiceprint of the audio signal matches the voiceprint in a voiceprint database of the voice check server and is associated with the obtained recipient identifier; and

decrypting, by the recipient computer, the received encrypted file using the received encryption key.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the address is a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the voice check ticket consists of the voiceprint identifier, the encryption key, and the voice check text.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the address is a Universal Resource Locator (URL).