Print management server, image formation apparatus, image formation authenticating system and computer readable storage medium storing program

• US 20080043278A1
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Published: 02/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Akira
• Application Number:
  US11/639,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20080043278A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect

Abstract

A print management server communicationally connected with an image formation apparatus through a communication network. The management server, includes: a storage unit to store image data; a security setting obtainment unit to obtain security setting information indicating a set state of a security function of the image formation apparatus from the image formation apparatus; a security judgment unit to judge whether the set state of the security function of the image formation apparatus satisfies a previously settled condition or not based on the security setting information obtained by the security setting obtainment unit; and a transmission control unit to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the security judgment unit judges that the set state of the security function satisfies the previously settled condition.

Claims

1. A print management server communicationally connected with an image formation apparatus through a communication network, comprising:

a storage unit to store image data;

a security setting obtainment unit to obtain security setting information indicating a set state of a security function of the image formation apparatus from the image formation apparatus;

a security judgment unit to judge whether the set state of the security function of the image formation apparatus satisfies a previously settled condition or not based on the security setting information obtained by the security setting obtainment unit; and

a transmission control unit to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the security judgment unit judges that the set state of the security function satisfies the previously settled condition.

2. The print management server of claim 1, wherein the print management server is further connected with an authentication server to issue security certification information to the image formation apparatus, through the communication network by the communication connection, the print management server further comprising:

a certification information obtainment unit to obtain the security certification information from the image formation apparatus; and

a collation requesting unit to request judgment of validity of the security certification information obtained by the certification information obtainment unit, to the authentication server, and

the transmission control unit transmits the image data stored in the storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the set state of the security function is judged to satisfy the previously settled condition and the security certification information is judged to be just as a result of a request of the judgment by the collation requesting unit.

3. The print management server of claim 1, further comprising:

a user information obtainment unit to obtain user information input into the image formation apparatus from the image formation apparatus; and

a user authentication unit to perform user authentication based on the user information obtained by the user information obtainment unit,

wherein the transmission control unit transmits the image data stored in the storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the set state of the security function is judged to satisfy the previously settled condition and the user authentication by the user authentication unit is effected.

4. An image formation apparatus communicationally connected with an external equipment through a communication network, comprising:

an operation unit to accept a user input of connection destination information to a print management server;

an image formation unit to perform image formation;

a storage unit to store security setting information indicating a set state of a security function;

a security setting transmission unit to transmit the security setting information stored in the storage unit to the print management server indicated by the connection destination information input from the operation unit; and

an image formation control unit to receive image data transmitted from the print management server to make the image formation unit execute image formation based on the image data.

5. The image formation apparatus of claim 4, wherein the storage unit further stores security certification information issued from an authentication server, and the security setting transmission unit transmits the security certification information together with the security setting information to the print management server.

6. The image formation apparatus of claim 4, wherein the operation unit further accepts an input of user information, and

the security setting transmission unit transmits the input user information together with the security setting information to the print management server.

7. The image formation apparatus of claim 4, wherein the security function includes at least one of an encrypted communication function of constructing an encrypted path with the print management server to perform data communication, an encrypted storage function of encrypting and storing the image data received by the image formation control unit, a data deletion function of deleting the stored image data after the image formation by the image formation unit, and a user authentication function of performing authentication of a user to operate the operation unit.

8. An image formation authenticating system in which an image formation apparatus to perform image formation and a print management server are communicationally connected with each other through a communication network, wherein

the image formation apparatus includes:

an operation unit to accept an user input of connection destination information to the print management server;

a security information storage unit to store security setting information indicating a set state of a security function;

a security information transmission unit to transmit the security setting information stored in the security information storage unit to the print management server indicated by the connection destination information input from the operation unit; and

an image formation control unit to receive image data transmitted from the print management server to execute image formation based on the image data, and

the print management server includes;

an image storage unit to store the image data;

a security setting obtainment unit to obtain the security setting information from the image formation apparatus;

a security judgment unit to judge whether the set state of the security function of the image formation apparatus satisfies a previously settled condition or not, based on the security setting information obtained by the security setting obtainment unit; and

a transmission control unit to transmit the image data stored in the image storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the security judgment unit judges that the set state of the security function satisfies the previously settled condition.

9. The image formation authenticating system of claim 8, wherein

the image formation authenticating system is further connected with an authentication server to issue security certification information to the image formation apparatus through the communication network by the communication connection,

the print management server further includes:

a certification information obtainment unit to obtain the security certification information from the image formation apparatus; and

a collation requesting unit to request judgment of validity of the security certification information obtained by the certification information obtainment unit from the authentication server,

wherein the transmission control unit transmits the image data stored in the image storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the set state of the security function is judged to satisfy the previously settled condition and the security certification information is judged to be just as a result of a request of the judgment by the collation requesting unit,

the security information storage unit further stores security certification information issued from the authentication server, and

the security information transmission unit transmits the security certification information together with the security setting information to the print management server.

10. The image formation authenticating system of claim 8, wherein

the operation unit further accepts an input of user information,

the security information transmission unit transmits the input user information together with the security setting information to the print management server, and

the print management server further includes:

a user information obtainment unit to obtain the user information from the image formation apparatus; and

a user authentication unit to perform user authentication based on the user information obtained by the user information obtainment unit, and

the transmission control unit transmits the image data stored in the image storage unit to the image formation apparatus when the set state of the security functions is judged to satisfy the previously settled condition and the user authentication by the user authentication unit is effected.

11. The image formation authenticating system of claim 8, wherein

the security function includes at least one of an encrypted communication function of constructing an encrypted path between the image formation apparatus and the print management server to perform data communication, an encrypted storage function of encrypting the image data to store the encrypted image data in the image formation apparatus, a data deletion function of deleting the image data stored in the image formation apparatus after the image formation, and a user authentication function of performing authentication of a user to operate the operation unit.

12. A computer readable storage medium storing a program for making a computer function as:

a storage unit to store image data;

a security setting obtainment unit to obtain security setting information indicating a set state of a security function of an image formation apparatus from the image formation apparatus through a communication network;

a security judgment unit to judge whether the set state of the security function of the image formation apparatus satisfies a previously settled condition or not based on the security setting information obtained by the security setting obtainment unit; and

a transmission control unit to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit to the image formation apparatus through the communication network when the security judgment unit judges that the set state of the security function satisfies the previously settled condition.

13. A computer readable storage medium storing a program for making a computer function as:

an input unit to accept an input of connection destination information to a print management server by a user'"'"'s operation;

a storage unit to store security setting information indicating a set state of a security function;

a security setting transmission unit to transmit the security setting information stored in the storage unit to the print management server indicated by the connection destination information input from the input unit; and

an image formation control unit to receive image data transmitted from the print management server to make the image formation unit execute the image formation based on the image data.