THE EVENT LEDGER

• US 20180062848A1
• Filed: 08/23/2016
• Published: 03/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gorman, Michael A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,361,869 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a globally accessible, un-forgeable, and permanent repository of published events in the form of an event ledger. A method according to the present disclosure includes receiving a request from a publisher to publish to an event ledger an event including a name of the publisher, a date and time at which the event occurred, a description of the event, and a cryptographic signature of the event signed using a private key of the publisher, receiving a certificate from the publisher including a public key of the publisher, validating the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate, and publishing the event to the event ledger.

Claims

1. A method implemented by at least one hardware processor comprising:

receiving a request from a publisher to publish an event to an event ledger, the event comprising;

a name of the publisher;

a date and time at which the event occurred;

a description of the event; and

a cryptographic signature of the event signed using a private key of the publisher;

receiving a certificate from the publisher, the certificate comprising a public key of the publisher;

verifying the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate;

publishing the event to the event ledger.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the certificate is an X.509 certificate of a domain name of the publisher.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the X.509 certificate is downloaded from the domain name of the publisher.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the name of the publisher comprises the domain name of the publisher.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises the received certificate.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the certificate is received separately from the request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate comprises:

removing the cryptographic signature from the event;

hashing the remaining portions of the event; and

using the public key to verify the cryptographic signature against the hash.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, based on the certificate, a third-party certificate authority; and

verifying that the received certificate was issued by the third-party certificate authority.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

recording the name of the third-party certificate authority with the event in the event ledger.

10. A system comprising:

at least one hardware processor configured to;

receive a request from a publisher to publish an event to an event ledger, the event comprising;

a name of the publisher;

a date and time at which the event occurred;

a description of the event; and

a cryptographic signature of the event signed using a private key of the publisher;

receive a certificate from the publisher, the certificate comprising a public key of the publisher;

verify the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate;

publish the event to the event ledger.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the certificate is an X.509 certificate of a domain name of the publisher.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the X.509 certificate is downloaded from the domain name of the publisher.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the name of the publisher comprises the domain name of the publisher.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the request comprises the received certificate.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the certificate is received separately from the request.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein verifying the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate comprises:

removing the cryptographic signature from the event;

hashing the remaining portions of the event; and

using the public key to verify the cryptographic signature against the hash.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one hardware processor is further configured to:

identify, based on the certificate, a third-party certificate authority; and

verify that the received certificate was issued by the third-party certificate authority.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

record the name of the third-party certificate authority with the event in the event ledger.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by at least one hardware processor, configure the at least one hardware processor to:

receive a request from a publisher to publish an event to an event ledger, the event comprising;

a name of the publisher;

a date and time at which the event occurred;

a description of the event; and

a cryptographic signature of the event signed using a private key of the publisher;

receive a certificate from the publisher, the certificate comprising a public key of the publisher;

verify the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate;

publish the event to the event ledger.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein verifying the cryptographic signature of the event using the received certificate comprises:

removing the cryptographic signature from the event;

hashing the remaining portions of the event; and

using the public key to verify the cryptographic signature against the hash.