Centralized secure communications system

• US 6,041,123 A
• Filed: 07/01/1996
• Issued: 03/21/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Allsoft Distributing Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Allsoft Distributing Incorporated
• Inventors: Colvin, Bryan Sr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cangialosi, Salvatore
• Application Number:
  US08/673,122
• Time in Patent Office: 1,359 Days
• Field of Search: 380/21, 380/25, 380/49
• US Class Current: 713/153
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/605 Copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/083 involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP]

Abstract

A system of secure communications between multiple parties. This system uses an index/secure key combination for each party. The index key never changes its value. A secured central router with access to a master database uses index keys to look up corresponding secure keys in the master database. The central router uses the secure keys to decrypt messages sent by parties and reencrypt the messages for the recipients and, thus, acts as a conduit for secure communications between parties.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a transmitting client and a receiving client, each client having an associated secure key and an encryptor/decryptor for encrypting and decrypting messages using the secure key; and

a master key router remotely disposed from the transmitting client and the receiving client having a decryptor for decrypting messages encrypted with the secure key of the transmitting client, and having au encryptor for encrypting messages with the secure key of the receiving client;

wherein messages between the transmitting client and the receiving client pass through the master key router, and wherein the master key router is configured to decrypt the message using the secure key of the sending client and a unique algorithm associated with the sending client and encrypt the message using the secure key of the receiving client and a unique algorithm associated with the receiving client.

2. The communications system of claim 1, wherein each client has an associated index key.

3. The communications system of claim 2, further comprising:

a master key server, the master key server having a database storing duplicates of the secure keys associated with each of the clients indexed according to the clients'"'"' respective index keys;

wherein the master key router communicates the index keys associated with the sending client and the receiving client to the master key server, the master key server uses the index keys associated with the sending client and the receiving client to look up the secure keys for the sending client and the receiving client respectively and communicates those secure keys to the master key router.

4. The communications system of claim 3, wherein the master key server is configured to add new clients.

5. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the master key router is configured to use secure keys of arbitrary length.

6. The communications system of claim 4, wherein the algorithms are determined by patching blocks of data to an algorithm template.

7. The communications system of claim 6, wherein the blocks of data patched to the algorithm engine contain the initial conditions for a random number generator within the algorithm engine.

8. The communications system of claim 7, wherein the blocks of data patched to the algorithm engine further contain the initialization of pointers to cause each data element in the streams of data to be encrypted to be scrambled using a different method.

9. The communications system of claim 4, wherein the unique algorithms for each client are generated by means of a pseudo-random number generator that uses clients'"'"' index keys as seeds such that the master key server may derive clients'"'"' algorithm numbers without the requirement of storing said algorithm number in the database within the master key server.

10. The communications system of claim 4, wherein the master key router'"'"'s decryptor decrypts messages encrypted with a secure key of a first client utilizing the inverse of said first client'"'"'s encryption algorithm and the master key router'"'"'s encryptor encrypts messages with a secure key of a second client utilizing the inverse of said second client'"'"'s encryption algorithm.

11. The communications system of claim 10, wherein the encryption algorithms of said first client and said second client differ and are determined by patching blocks of data to an algorithm engine and wherein the master key router is configured to derive a any particular client'"'"'s algorithm by patching the algorithm engine with the same blocks of data used to determine that client'"'"'s algorithm.

12. The communications systems of claim 1, wherein each secure key used for sending a message is modified after the message is transmitted.

13. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the encryption and decryption of communications between the transmitting client and the receiving client utilizes state variables to create a random number stream and the state variable data is only partially used for each character of data to be transmitted or received.

14. The communications system of claim 1, wherein the communications between the transmitting client and the receiving client comprises a stream of characters and encryption and decryption of the stream of characters involves modifying each character in the stream of characters by a different method of encryption or decryption.