APPARATUS AND METHOD TO PROVIDE SECURE COMMUNICATION OVER AN INSECURE COMMUNICATION CHANNEL FOR LOCATION INFORMATION USING TRACKING DEVICES

• US 20090103722A1
• Filed: 10/18/2007
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LBT IP LLC (Location Based Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Location Based Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Anderson, Roger B., Anderson, Jennifer B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,654,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/043 of tables, e.g. lookup, substitution or mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0841 involving Diffie-Hellman or related key agreement protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0872 using geo-location information, e.g. location data, time, relative position or proximity to other entities

Abstract

A system for securing information. The system includes a first tracking device associated with an object or an individual. In one embodiment, the first tracking device generates independently a synchronous secret key and a server generates independently the synchronous secret key. Over an insecure communication channel, the server communicates an asynchronous vector pair encrypted with the synchronous secret key with the tracking device. To securely communicate information, messages are encrypted and decrypted using the asynchronous vector pair between the tracking device and the server. To further secure message information, a set of random numbers may be further utilized with the asynchronous vector pair to further encrypt and decrypt the messages communicated between the tracking device and the server.

Claims

1. An apparatus to communicate location coordinate information over an insecure communication channel, comprising:

a first tracking device to communicate first cipher seed values with a location coordinate monitoring station, the first tracking device generates a first synchronous key independent of the first synchronous key generation by the location coordinate monitoring station;

wherein the location coordinate monitoring station selects randomly an asynchronous vector pair to encrypt with the first synchronous key before transmitting at least one of the asynchronous vector pairs to the tracking device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tracking device decrypts the asynchronous vector pairs using the first synchronous key and receives and transmits messages utilizing the at least one of the asynchronous vector pairs.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first tracking device further communicates second cipher seed values with the location coordinate monitoring station and the tracking device independently generates a second synchronous key independent of the second synchronous key generation by the location coordinate monitoring station.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the location coordinate monitoring station communicates a set of random numbers encrypted with the second synchronous key and communicated with the tracking device.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein messages communicated are decrypted and encrypted utilizing pseudo randomly selected asynchronous vector pairs and a number selected from the set of random numbers.

6. A system securely communicates information over an insecure communication channel, comprising:

a server;

a tracking device associated with an object, the tracking device exchanges a first cipher code with the server;

wherein the tracking device and the server each independently generates a first secret key utilizing the first cipher code and a first selected random number only known respectively to either the tracking device or the server; and

wherein the server encrypts a table of vector encryption and decryption transform pairs with the first secret key to form a first signal and communicates the first signal to the tracking device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the server and the tracking device communicate messages utilizing at least one of the vector encryption transform pairs.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the tracking device and the server exchange a second cipher code.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the server and the tracking device each generate a second secret key utilizing the second cipher code and a second selected random number only known respectively to either the tracking device or the server.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the server encrypts a set of random numbers with the second secret key and sends the set of random numbers to the tracking device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein messages communicated between the server and the tracking device are encrypted and decrypted using at least one pseudo-randomly selected number from the set of random numbers and at least one of the encryption and decryption vector pairs.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein messages communicated between the server and the tracking device are encrypted and decrypted using at least one selected number from the set of random number and at least one of the encryption and decryption vector pairs.

13. A method for securely communicating location coordinates between at least one of a first party and a second party, comprising:

accessing an insecure communication channel by the first party and the second party;

selecting a first secret random number independently by a first party;

selecting a second secret random number independently by a second party; and

independently computing by the first and the second party a first synchronous key.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of collectively selecting first and second pseudo-random values utilized for independently computing the first synchronous key by the first party and the second party respectively.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of transmitting a first vector transform pair encrypted by the first synchronous key by at least one of the first party and the second party.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of decrypting the first vector transform pair by at least one of the first party and the second party to encrypt and decrypt message contents communicated between the first and the second party.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of exchanging cipher information to generate independently a second synchronous key by the first and the second party.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of communicating a pseudo-random number set encrypted by the second synchronous key between the first party and the second party.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of encrypting messages utilizing a second vector transform pair and at least one of the pseudo-random number set to securely communicate the message contents between the first party and the second party.

20. A method to securely communicate location coordinates of the tracking device over an insecure communication channel, comprising:

performing at least one cipher key exchange between the tracking device and a monitoring station;

calculating independently by the first tracking device at least one synchronous key utilizing a first secret key of the tracking device in response to receiving the at least one cipher key exchange;

calculating independently by the monitoring station at least one synchronous key utilizing a second secret key by the monitoring station in response to receiving the at least one cipher key exchange; and

compressing messages comprising the location coordinates of tracking device to a reduced byte representation in response to detecting redundant location coordinates;

wherein the reduced byte representation improves message security and decreases likelihood of detecting the location coordinates of the tracking device.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of communicating at least one of asynchronous vector transform pairs encrypted with the at least one synchronous key between the monitoring station and the first tracking device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of communicating at least one random number set encrypted with at least one synchronous key between the monitoring station and the first tracking device.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of encrypting the messages utilizing the at least one of asynchronous vector transform pairs and at least one random number from the random number set to securely communicate the messages between the first tracking device and the monitoring station.