Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Multiple computer communication using cryptography – Protection at a particular protocol layer
Patent
1997-09-30
2000-11-14
Swann, Tod R.
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Multiple computer communication using cryptography
Protection at a particular protocol layer
G06F 100
Patent
active
061484067
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a method for ensuring the security of a device, as described in the preamble to claim 1.
In known security systems, checking of the person demanding access to a device such as a database, file or building is done by means of a logic control device. Said logic control device can be a mainframe computer monitoring a large number of accesses simultaneously, or a microprocessor monitoring a limited number of entrances, e.g. the access to a building.
In such security systems, each authorised user has both a personal code or password being stored in the logic control device, and a system code, where an unambiguous relationship exists between the system code for a person and his personal code or password. Whenever a person wishes to gain access to the security system, he communicates his system code to the security system. The computer verifies whether this is correct. If the system code is correct, the user is generally asked to enter his password or personal code into the computer. This is compared with the personal code stored in the computer. Only if both are identical does the security system permit access. Such a system code can take various forms, such as the known magnetic card, the recognition of a voice, a standardised figure and/or letter combination, etc.
Such security systems however do not have a maximum level of security, since the system code in the form of a magnetic card, for example, can be lost or stolen. Furthermore, it is known that magnetic cards can be easily damaged. Also, in these known systems, the same code is always entered, holding the danger that the code may be discovered by another person.
In German patent application 3 904 215, a first embodiment of a method is described in which a user possesses an identification card and a personal code consisting of figures indicating an element of a series of random figures, where said element is then entered into a logic device in order to gain access to a secured system. However, a third person who observes the user, and thus knows the figures entered as well as the series of random figures, can without difficulty deduce what the personal code of the user is. Accordingly, said third person, once he has obtained possession of said identification card, can gain access to the secured system.
In a second embodiment of the above-mentioned German patent application, the result of an operation between a random number and a personal code is entered as the password into the secured system. An observer who observes the user, and thus who knows the random number, the password entered and the operation applied, can easily deduce the user's personal code from these, and so can gain access to the secured system if he obtains possession of the corresponding identification card.
American patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,236 describes a method for securing a device in which a user possesses an identification device which, on the basis of a random number issued by a logic control device and subsequently entered in said identification device, calculates a password on the basis of a preprogrammed function.
This method also has the disadvantage that a person who observes the random number displayed on the screen, and the figures of the password entered on the keyboard, can calculate the preprogrammed function from them. If this person obtains possession of the identification device, he does not even have to calculate this function in order to obtain access to the secured device, but can simply enter the codes observed.
In the method according to American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,1177,789, a user is assigned a personal figure code in which each figure of this code indicates a position in a series of random figures. When this user wishes to access a secured system, various series of random figures are communicated to the user, who has to enter in a logic control device the figures located at a position in a series given by the figures of his personal code.
An unauthorised person who observes the actions of the user can however deduce the correspond
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Lo Piano Ornella
Weisz Herman
Smithers Matthew
Swann Tod R.
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