Hiding ciphertext using a linguistics algorithm with dictionaries

• US 9,160,719 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2013
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Integrity, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Protected Mobility LLC
• Inventors: Marlow, William J., Cichielo, Robert, Sturniolo, Emil, Benware, Paul, Fascenda, Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): KAPLAN, BENJAMIN A
• Application Number:
  US13/947,186
• Publication Number:
  US 20140025952A1
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 713/168
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload

Abstract

Encrypted communications is made to appear to be normal text so as to avoid undue attention to either the sender or recipient. Information can be hidden or embedded in innocuous documents using steganography wherein the information is masked within a larger document. Other approaches would translate the ciphertext into a form of normal looking text that would in effect be gibberish but would use normal words in at least one native language. There are many tradeoffs and benefits to be considered when attempting any form of encrypted communications.

Claims

1. A method for providing security in an electronic messaging system comprising:

receiving a message input;

using a processor, encoding said message input to provide ciphertext;

with said processor, further transforming said ciphertext to disguise the ciphertext and make it appear to be similar to or indistinguishable from, at least by certain automated processes, a natural language short message; and

transmitting said further-transformed ciphertext as a short message over an electronic network using a short-messaging protocol.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said short-messaging protocol comprises SMS and said further transforming uses an SMS language dictionary containing words commonly exchanged over SMS.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said further transforming comprises using a word dictionary to substitute natural language words for incomprehensible ciphertext elements.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising using a table look-up of a word from the dictionary using a dictionary table comprising randomly chosen words, and wherein the dictionary table is shared by a sender and a receiver.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein said further transforming comprises using enciphered characters as an index into a dictionary table.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising automatically, with the processor, generating individual sentence parameters including a number of words to a sentence, where to insert punctuation marks, and other characteristics in order to make the transformed ciphertext appear as at least one natural language short message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the further transforming uses a dictionary that includes alternate spellings of the same natural language words.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the further transforming uses a text vernacular dictionary to transform the ciphertext to mimic the style of a human texting vernacular.

9. A system for providing security in electronic messaging comprising:

an input device that receives a message input;

a processor configured to encode said message input to provide ciphertext, to further transform said ciphertext to disguise the ciphertext and make it appear to be similar to or indistinguishable from, at least by certain automated processes, a natural language short message; and

a message transmitter that transmits said further-transformed ciphertext as a short message over an electronic network using a short-messaging protocol.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said short-messaging protocol comprises SMS.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein said further transforming comprises using a word dictionary to substitute natural language words for incomprehensible ciphertext elements.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising using a table look-up of a word from the dictionary using a dictionary table comprising randomly chosen words, and wherein the dictionary table is shared by a sender and a receiver.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein said further transforming comprises using enciphered characters as an index into a dictionary table.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to generate individual sentence parameters including a number of words to a sentence, where to insert punctuation marks, and other characteristics in order to make the transformed ciphertext appear as natural language of at least one short message.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is coupled to a dictionary that includes alternate spellings of the same natural language words, and the processor transforms said ciphertext using the dictionary.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is coupled to a text vernacular dictionary, and the processor transforms said ciphertext to mimic the style of a human texting vernacular using the text vernacular dictionary.

17. A non-transitory storage device storing instructions which when executed by a processor improves security of an electronic messaging system, the instructions comprising:

First instructions for receiving a message input;

Second instructions for encoding said message input to provide ciphertext;

Third instructions for further transforming said ciphertext to disguise the ciphertext and make it appear to be similar to or indistinguishable from, at least by certain automated processes, from a natural language short message; and

Fourth instructions for transmitting said further-transformed ciphertext as a short message over an electronic network using a short-messaging protocol.

18. The storage device of claim 17 wherein the natural language short message is no more than 140 characters long and is written in the style of a text message.

19. The device of claim 17 wherein the third instructions use a dictionary that includes alternate spellings of the same natural language words.

20. The device of claim 17 wherein the third instructions use a text vernacular dictionary to transform said ciphertext to mimic the style of a human texting vernacular.