Digital signatures for network forms

• US 8,200,975 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: O'Connor, Brian G., Ifrim, Silviu, Deobhakta, Kalpita S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abrishamkar, Kaveh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khoshnoodi, Nadia
• Application Number:
  US11/170,521
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,540 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/68 Special signature format, e.g. XML format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

Systems and/or methods enabling an individual to digitally sign data using an identifier where the data being digitally signed and the identifier are not accessed at the same location are described. In some cases, the systems and/or methods permit an individual to digitally sign data for an electronic document using an identifier inaccessible by a remote computer where the electronic document is rendered using view information from that remote computer. The systems and/or methods may also enable a network computer to send view information for, and a digital encoding of, an electronic document to a local computer effective to enable the local computer to digitally sign the electronic document by signing the digital encoding of electronic document.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processing devices,

one or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

receiving, at a local computer local to an individual, a selection from the individual to sign selected data rendered at the local computer in a view of an electronic document, the view of the electronic document being rendered using view information received from a remote computer, the selected data of the electronic document being kept remotely at the remote computer, the local computer that is used to view the electronic document and sign the selected data being unable to access or perform operations upon the selected data to be signed;

creating, as a graphic file, a static image of the view of the electronic document rendered at the local computer;

sending the static image of the view, non-repudiation information describing environment information for the local computer, and an indication of the selected data to be signed to the remote computer to cause generation of an encoding by the remote computer of the selected data including the static view;

digitally signing, at the local computer, the encoding of the selected data including the static image of the view using an identifier identifying the individual, the identifier being inaccessible by the remote computer, the encoding of the selected data being generated by and received by the local computer from the remote computer in response to the sending; and

communicating the digitally signed encoding including the static image of the view to the remote computer to cause the remote computer to form a digital signing of the electronic document by creating an association of the encoding of the selected data digitally signed at the local computer with the data of the electronic document kept remotely at the remote computer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the local computer renders the view information through a network browser.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the act of digitally signing the selected data permits the selected data to be repurposed without breaking the digital signature.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the static view comprises a screen shot of the view rendered at the local computer to enable recreation of the view by a third party for verification of the digital signing.

5. A method comprising using a computer to perform acts including:

rendering a view of an electronic document derived from view information corresponding to data to be signed, the view information being created from the data to be signed at a remote source, the data being kept at the remote source, and the computer that is used to view the electronic document and sign the data being unable to access or perform operations upon the data to be signed;

receiving, from an individual, a selection to sign the data of the electronic document;

generating, as a graphic file, a static image of the rendered view;

communicating the static image, non-repudiation information describing an environment of the computer, and an indication of the data to be signed to the remote source;

receiving, from the remote source responsive to the communicating, an encoding of the data calculated by the remote source based on the static image and the non-repudiation information;

digitally signing the encoding including the static image; and

communicating the digitally signed encoding to the remote source to cause the remote source to associate the digitally signed encoding with the data kept at the remote source to form a digitally signed document the digitally signed document including the static image and context information sufficient to enable recreation of the view as seen at the computer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the act of receiving the selection, receiving the encoding, and digitally signing are performed at a computer local to the individual and remote from the remote source.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the act of receiving the selection comprises receiving the selection of a portion of the data of the electronic document and wherein the encoding is of the portion of the data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the act of digitally signing comprises signing the encoding using an identifier capable of identifying the individual.

9. The method of claim 8/, wherein the identifier comprises a unique private key of a private key infrastructure.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the identifier is not accessible by the remote source.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the static view comprises a screen shot of the view as seen at the computer.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media other than signals per se storing computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a network computer, cause the network computer to perform acts comprising:

sending view information for an electronic document to a local computer, the view information being usable by the local computer to render a view of the electronic document'"'"'s data, the electronic document'"'"'s data being kept at the network computer apart from the local computer, the local computer that is used to view the electronic information and sign at least some of the electronic document'"'"'s data being unable to access or perform operations upon the electronic document'"'"'s data;

receiving an indication of selected data to be signed, a static image of the view created by the local computer as a graphic file, and non-describing an environment of the network computer communicated by the local computer in response to a selection to sign the electronic document'"'"'s data;

building a digital encoding of the electronic document'"'"'s data based upon the received indication of selected data, static image, and non-repudiation information;

sending the digital encoding of the electronic document'"'"'s data to the local computer to cause the local computer to perform a signing of the digital encoding using an identifier of the local computer that remains remotely inaccessible to the network computer;

receiving, from the local computer, a digital signature of the digital encoding; and

associating the digital signature received from the local computer with the electronic document'"'"'s data kept at the network computer to form a digital signing of the electronic document at the network computer, the digital signing including the static image of the view to enable recreation of the view by the network computer.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the electronic document'"'"'s data comprises structured data, and further comprising building the view information by transforming the structured data, the view information enabling a network browser to render the structured data.

14. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the digital signature of the digital encoding is signed at the local computer using an identifier, the identifier capable of identifying an individual.

15. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, further comprising building a digitally signed document, the digitally signed document comprising the digital signature of the digital encoding and an indicator of the electronic document'"'"'s data to which the digital encoding relates.

16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 15, further comprising receiving contextual information associated with the static image, and wherein the act of building the digitally signed document comprises building the digitally signed document comprising the static image and the contextual information.

17. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the act of associating the digital signature with the electronic document'"'"'s data permits the electronic document'"'"'s data to be repurposed without breaking the digital encoding.

18. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, further comprising building the digital encoding having a strong cryptographic hash of the electronic document'"'"'s data.

19. The computer-readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the static view comprises a screen shot of the view presented at the local computer.