Meta-complete data storage

• US 9,514,330 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2015
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Protegrity USA, Inc. (Xcelera Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Protegrity USA, Inc. (Xcelera Inc.)
• Inventors: Mattsson, Ulf
• Primary Examiner(s): Turchen, James
• Application Number:
  US14/841,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20150371058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 462 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0464 using hop-by-hop encryption, i.e. wherein an intermediate entity decrypts the information and re-encrypts it before forwarding it
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0637 Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions

Abstract

The invention described herein generally relates to systems and methods of securely storing data so that the data contains information about the data and/or the encryption of the data, systems and methods of providing secure access to real world data through data transformations, and systems and methods of managing security parameters for data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by a processor, a plurality of structured data, each datum of the plurality of structured data comprising;

a first subset of characters, the first subset of characters comprising clear-text characters; and

a second subset of characters, the second subset of characters comprising encrypted characters, the encrypted characters generated by applying an encryption function to unencrypted characters, the second subset of characters further comprising metadata describing the encryption function such that a length of the second subset of characters comprising the metadata is equal to or less than a length of the unencrypted characters;

searching, by the processor, the plurality of structured data with a query term received from a requesting entity by;

identifying a first result set, each result in the first result set comprising a datum of the plurality of structured data with a first subset of characters at least partially matching a first portion of the query term; and

identifying a second result set, each result in the second result set comprising a result of the first result set with a second subset of characters at least partially matching a second portion of the query term; and

presenting the second result set of data to the requesting entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a second result set comprises:

decrypting, for each result in the first result set, the second subset of characters; and

identifying one or more of the results in the first result set with a decrypted second subset of characters at least partially matching the second portion of the query term.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second subset of characters of each datum of the plurality of structured data not included in the first result set is not decrypted.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein for each datum of the plurality of structured data, the first subset of characters and the second subset of characters are stored in a single data element in a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein for at least one datum of the plurality of structured data, the length of the second subset of characters is equal to the length of the unencrypted characters.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity is a person.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity is a system configured to query the plurality of structured data.

8. A system comprising:

a database comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of structured data, each datum of the plurality of structured data comprising;

a first subset of characters, the first subset of characters comprising clear-text characters; and

a second subset of characters, the second subset of characters comprising encrypted characters, the encrypted characters generated by applying an encryption function to unencrypted characters, the second subset of characters further comprising metadata describing the encryption function such that a length of the second subset of characters comprising the metadata is equal to or less than a length of the unencrypted characters;

a search engine comprising one or more hardware processors and configured to search the plurality of structured data with a query term received from a requesting entity by;

identifying a first result set, each result in the first result set comprising a datum of the plurality of structured data with a first subset of characters at least partially matching a first portion of the query term; and

identifying a second result set, each result in the second result set comprising a result of the first result set with a second subset of characters at least partially matching a second portion of the query term; and

an output configured to present the second result set of data to the requesting entity.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein identifying a second result set comprises:

decrypting, for each result in the first result set, the second subset of characters; and

identifying one or more of the results in the first result set with a decrypted second subset of characters at least partially matching the second portion of the query term.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the second subset of characters of each datum of the plurality of structured data not included in the first result set is not decrypted.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein for each datum of the plurality of structured data, the first subset of characters and the second subset of characters are stored in a single data element in a database.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein for at least one datum of the plurality of structured data, the length of the second subset of characters is equal to the length of the unencrypted characters.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the requesting entity is a person.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the requesting entity is a system configured to query the plurality of structured data.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer instructions configured to, when executed by one or more hardware processors, perform steps comprising:

accessing a plurality of structured data, each datum of the plurality of structured data comprising;

a first subset of characters, the first subset of characters comprising clear-text characters; and

a second subset of characters, the second subset of characters comprising encrypted characters, the encrypted characters generated by applying an encryption function to unencrypted characters, the second subset of characters further comprising metadata describing the encryption function such that a length of the second subset of characters comprising the metadata is equal to or less than a length of the unencrypted characters;

searching the plurality of structured data with a query term received from a requesting entity by;

identifying a first result set, each result in the first result set comprising a datum of the plurality of structured data with a first subset of characters at least partially matching a first portion of the query term; and

identifying a second result set, each result in the second result set comprising a result of the first result set with a second subset of characters at least partially matching a second portion of the query term; and

presenting the second result set of data to the requesting entity.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein identifying a second result set comprises:

decrypting, for each result in the first result set, the second subset of characters; and

identifying one or more of the results in the first result set with a decrypted second subset of characters at least partially matching the second portion of the query term.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the second subset of characters of each datum of the plurality of structured data not included in the first result set is not decrypted.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein for each datum of the plurality of structured data, the first subset of characters and the second subset of characters are stored in a single data element in a database.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein for at least one datum of the plurality of structured data, the length of the second subset of characters is equal to the length of the unencrypted characters.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the requesting entity is a person.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the requesting entity is a system configured to query the plurality of structured data.