System and method to anonymize data transmitted to a destination computing device

• US 9,667,741 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lookout Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Ciphercloud Incorporated
• Inventors: Kothari, Pravin, Gorantla, Malakondayya, Dash, Debabrata
• Primary Examiner(s): Lemma, Samson
• Application Number:
  US13/844,161
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 713193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0407 wherein the identity of one or more communicating identities is hidden cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for anonymous credentials or for identity based cryptographic systems H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0435 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply symmetric encryption, i.e. same key used for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for symmetric key encryption H04L9/06

Abstract

A method and system for anonymizing data to be transmitted to a destination computing device is disclosed. Anonymization strategy for data anonymization is provided. Data to be transmitted is received from a user computer. A context sensing word is appended to the anonymized data. The anonymized data and the context sensing word are transmitted to the destination computing device. In one embodiment, the data includes a plurality of normal words and a plurality of stop words. A compacted stop word representative of each of the stop word and their relative position in the data is created. Anonymized normal words and anonymized compacted stop word is transmitted to the destination computing device.

Claims

1. A method for anonymizing data to be transmitted to a destination computing device, comprising:

receiving data to be transmitted to the destination computing device from a user computer, the data including a plurality of characters;

anonymizing the received data using an anonymization module executed on a computing device to derive an anonymized data;

selecting one or more characters that selectively get modified when subjected to a plurality of format conversions;

forming a context sensing word using the selected one or more characters;

appending the context sensing word to the anonymized data; and

transmitting anonymized data and the context sensing word for storage in the destination computing device over a network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the anonymized data includes at least one or more characters of the context sensing word.

3. The method of claim 2, further including:

subjecting the anonymized data and the context sensing word to at least one format conversion, wherein at least one of the characters of the context sensing word is modified by the at least one format conversion to generate a modified context sensing word;

retrieving the modified context sensing word; and

analyzing the modified context sensing word to determine the at least one format conversion.

4. The method of claim 3, further including:

selectively modifying the retrieved anonymized data subjected to the at least one format conversion so as generate anonymized data as originally transmitted.

5. The method of claim 4, further including:

de-anonymizing the generated anonymized data as originally transmitted.

6. The method of claim 1, further including, providing anonymization strategy for data anonymization on a data store in the computing device;

and

anonymizing data further including selectively anonymizing the data based on the anonymization strategy for the data to be anonymized.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

storing anonymized data and context sensing word in a data store in the destination computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, further including:

retrieving the anonymized data and context sensing word from the destination computing device;

analyzing the context sensing word for one or more format conversion based on a modification to the context sensing word;

modifying the retrieved anonymized data based on the analysis of the context sensing word to generate anonymized data as originally stored; and

de-anonymizing the anonymized data as originally stored to derive de-anonymized data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the format conversion adds selective one or more characters to one or more characters of the context sensing word and selective presence of the added selective one or more characters is indicative of the selective format conversion.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the retrieved anonymized data is modified by selectively deleting the selective one or more characters added by the format conversion to generate anonymized data as originally stored.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the context sensing word includes characters \ and &

.

12. The method of claim 2, further including:

retrieving the anonymized data and context sensing word from the destination computing device;

analyzing the context sensing word for one or more format conversion based on a modification to the context sensing word;

modifying portions of the retrieved anonymized data with one or more characters of the context sensing word, based on the analysis of the context sensing word to generate anonymized data as originally stored; and

de-anonymizing the anonymized data as originally stored to derive de-anonymized data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the format conversion adds selective one or more characters to one or more characters of the context sensing word and selective presence of the added selective one or more characters is indicative of the selective format conversion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the retrieved anonymized data is modified by selectively deleting the selective one or more characters added by the format conversion to generate anonymized data as originally stored.