Method and system for obscuring and securing financial data in an online banking application

• US 8,041,127 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Whitelaw, James E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Akhavannik; Hadi
• Application Number:
  US11/607,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20080130940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,783 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/229, 715/209, 715/530
• US Class Current: 382/229
• 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

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that obscures critical information communicated over a network. During operation, the system receives a set of data and produces a file which represents a character in the data with at least one image, thereby avoiding representing the data in plain text and reducing the risk of scraping. The system then communicates the file to a client, thereby allowing the client to present the data using the embedded images.

Claims

1. A method for obscuring critical information communicated over a network, the method comprising:

receiving a set of data;

analyzing the set of data to determine a string of one or more characters which represents a subset of the set of data;

generating multiple images, wherein the multiple images convey the subset of the set of data to a user when viewed by the user, and wherein at least one character in the string of one or more characters is split across two or more images in the multiple images;

substituting the multiple images for the subset in the set of data;

producing a file which includes the set of data with the multiple images, thereby avoiding representing the subset of the set of data in plain text and reducing the risk of scraping; and

communicating the file to a client, thereby allowing the client to present the set of data that includes the multiple images to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the string of one or more characters can include an alphabetic character, a numeric character, or a symbol.

3. The method of claim 1, characters into a number of portions and replacing each portion with an image;

wherein the string of one or more characters can include an alphabetic character, a numeric character, or a symbol.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically generating the images used for each session, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between multiple images and a character through optical character recognition (OCR).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically generating universal resource identifiers (URI'"'"'s) used to reference the images, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between an image and the URI used to reference the image.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically generating the images for each character represented by image, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between multiple images and a character through OCR.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

steganographically concealing the file within one or more cover images, thereby further reducing the risk of scraping; and

wherein communicating the file to the client involves communicating the cover images to the client, thereby allowing the client to extract the concealed file.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising encrypting the file prior to steganographically concealing the file.

9. A computer system for obscuring critical information communicated over a network, the computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a receiving mechanism configured to receive a set of data;

an analysis mechanism configured to analyze the set of data to determine a string of one or more characters which represents a subset of the set of data;

an image generation mechanism configured to generate multiple images, wherein the multiple images convey the subset of the set of data to a user when viewed by the user, and wherein at least one character in the string of one or more characters is split across two or more images in the multiple images;

a substitution mechanism configured to substitute the multiple images for the subset in the set of data;

a data obscuring mechanism configured to produce a file which includes the set of data with the multiple images, thereby avoiding representing the subset of the set of data in plain text and reducing the risk of scraping; and

a communication mechanism configured to communicate the file to a client, thereby allowing the client to present the set of data that includes the multiple images to the user.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the string of one or more characters can include an alphabetic character, a numeric character, or a symbol.

11. The computer system of claim 9,

wherein the string of one or more characters can include an alphabetic character, a numeric character, or a symbol.

12. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

an image generation mechanism configured to dynamically generate the images used for each session, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between multiple images and a character through OCR.

13. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

a URI generation mechanism configured to dynamically generate the URI'"'"'s used to reference the images, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between an image and the URI used to reference the image.

14. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

an image generation mechanism configured to dynamically generate the images for each character represented by image, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between multiple images and a character through OCR.

15. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

an encryption mechanism configured to steganographically conceal the file within one or more cover images, thereby further reducing the risk of scraping; and

wherein while communicating the file to the client involves communicating the cover images to the client, thereby allowing the client to extract the concealed file.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the encryption mechanism is configured to encrypt the file prior to steganographically concealing the file.

17. A method for obscuring critical information communicated over a network, the method comprising:

receiving a set of data;

analyzing the set of data to determine a string of one or more characters which represents a subset of the set of data;

generating multiple images, wherein the multiple images convey the subset of the set of data to a user when viewed by the user, wherein said generating involves dynamically generating the multiple images for each session, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between the multiple images and a character through optical character recognition (OCR);

substituting the multiple images for the subset in the set of data;

producing a file which includes the set of data with the multiple images, thereby avoiding representing the subset of the set of data in plain text and reducing the risk of scraping; and

communicating the file to a client, thereby allowing the client to present the set of data that includes the multiple images to the user.

18. A computer system for obscuring critical information communicated over a network, the computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computer system to perform a method, the method comprising;

receiving a set of data;

analyzing the set of data to determine a string of one or more characters which represents a subset of the set of data;

generating multiple images, wherein the multiple images convey the subset of the set of data to a user when viewed by the user, wherein said generating involves dynamically generating the multiple images for each session, thereby preventing an unauthorized scraper from acquiring a mapping between the multiple images and a character through optical character recognition (OCR);

substituting the multiple images for the subset in the set of data;

producing a file which includes the set of data with the multiple images, thereby avoiding representing the subset of the set of data in plain text and reducing the risk of scraping; and

communicating the file to a client, thereby allowing the client to present the set of data that includes the multiple images to the user.