Systems and Methods to Secure Personally Identifiable Information

• US 20180336366A1
• Filed: 05/18/2017
• Published: 11/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tilia, Inc. (Newell Brands Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Linden Research Incorporated
• Inventors: Scheiblauer, Nicolas J., Torres, Aaron, McDowell, Landon Oakes, Nowell, Christopher Allen
• Granted Patent: US 10,410,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/42 Anonymization, e.g. involving pseudonyms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0863 involving passwords or one-time passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for using one-time keys in a packet data network H04L63/067
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0866 involving user or device identifiers, e.g. serial number, physical or biometrical information, DNA, hand-signature or measurable physical characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/16 the keys or algorithms being changed during operation

Abstract

A method implemented in a computing system hosting a three-dimensional virtual reality world. The computer system collects personally identifiable information of users of accounts, where each account in the accounts is identified by an account identifier and each data field of personally identifiable information of each account is identified by a data field identifier. The system uses a scrypt function to generate an encryption key from the global key, the account identifier, and the data field identifier specifically for the content of the data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account. Different encryption keys are used for different data fields and different accounts. Encrypted content of a data field is stored at a random location; and the identification of the random location is stored in a device, database or system, separate from where the encrypted contents of the data fields of the accounts are stored.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer system hosting a three-dimensional virtual reality world, the method comprising:

collecting personally identifiable information of users of accounts to access the three-dimensional virtual reality world hosted on the computer system, wherein;

each respective account in the accounts is identified by an account identifier; and

each respective data field of personally identifiable information of the respective account is identified by a data field identifier;

storing a global key;

generating an encryption key from the global key, the account identifier, and the data field identifier for a content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account, wherein;

the content is encrypted using the encryption key to generate an encrypted content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account, and

the encrypted content is decryptable using the encryption key;

determining a storage location for the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account; and

storing the storage location separate from encrypted contents of personally identifiable information of the accounts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encryption key is not stored in the computer system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the storage location is stored in a database separate from a data storage of the encrypted contents of personally identifiable information of the accounts.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage location is stored in the database in an encrypted form.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage location is encrypted using the encryption key and stored in the database.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the generating of the encryption key is performed using a resource-intensive password-based key derivation function.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the function is a scrypt function.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the global key is stored and controlled by a key master.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein access to the database is controlled by the key master.

10. A computing system hosting a three-dimensional virtual reality world, the system comprising:

a key master;

a server system;

a first data storage device controlled by the server system and storing;

a three-dimensional model of the virtual reality world; and

avatar models representing residences of the virtual reality world; and

a second data storage device controlled by the key master and storing;

a location database; and

a global key;

wherein users of accounts to access the three-dimensional virtual reality world hosted on the computer system have personally identifiable information;

wherein each respective account in the accounts is identified by an account identifier;

wherein each respective data field of personally identifiable information of the respective account is identified by a data field identifier;

wherein the key master generates an encryption key from the global key, the account identifier, and the data field identifier for a content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account;

wherein the server system encrypts the content using the encryption key to generate an encrypted content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account;

wherein the encrypted content is decryptable using the encryption key;

wherein the location database stores an identification of a storage location in the first data storage device for the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account; and

wherein the first data storage device stores the encrypted content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account at the storage location identified by the identification.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein presence of the encryption key in the computer system is transient.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the server system queries the key master for the encryption key using the account identifier, and the data field identifier to obtain the encryption key and the identification of the storage location.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the identification of the storage location is stored in the database in an encrypted form.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the identification of the storage location is encrypted using the encryption key for storage in the location database.

15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the generating of the encryption key is performed using a resource-intensive password-based key derivation function.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the function is a scrypt function.

17. A non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method, the method comprising:

collecting personally identifiable information of users of accounts to access the computer system, wherein;

each respective account in the accounts is identified by an account identifier; and

each respective data field of personally identifiable information of the respective account is identified by a data field identifier;

storing a global key;

generating an encryption key from the global key, the account identifier, and the data field identifier for a content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account, wherein;

the content is encrypted using the encryption key to generate an encrypted content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account, and

the encrypted content is decryptable using the encryption key;

determining an identification of a storage location for the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account; and

storing the identification of the storage location separate from encrypted contents of personally identifiable information of the accounts.

18. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

encrypting the content using the encryption key to generate the encrypted content of the respective data field of the personally identifiable information of the respective account; and

storing the encrypted content at the storage location identified by the identification.

19. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 18, wherein the encryption key is generated using a scrypt function.

20. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the encrypted contents of personally identifiable information of the accounts are stored in a data storage device that has no information revealing association of encrypted contents of different fields of personally identifiable information as being associated with one account.