Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Multiple computer communication using cryptography – Particular communication authentication technique
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-18
2002-12-17
Peeso, Thomas R. (Department: 2132)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Multiple computer communication using cryptography
Particular communication authentication technique
C713S170000, C713S176000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06496930
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on applications Nos. 9-348939 and 10-193001 filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a message receiving apparatus for receiving messages converted for secret communication, and a message transmitting apparatus for transmitting the converted messages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In computer-to-computer communications, encryption techniques are widely used to protect privacy of information against third parties aside from the transmitter and the receiver of the information. Digital signature techniques which add signature information to transmission information are equally widely used to guarantee secure information transmission from the transmitter to the receiver.
For example, in the WWW (World Wide Web) system on the Internet, encryption techniques can be used when a user of a client apparatus inputs a message of a predetermined format in response to information provided from a server apparatus and transmits the input message to the server apparatus. The SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol and the S-HTTP (Secure-HyperText Transfer Protocol) are representative of such encryption techniques used in the WWW system.
To communicate a message which requires privacy using the SSL protocol, first a server (receiver of the message) sends a request to select whether to use the SSL protocol to a client (transmitter of the message), and the client accordingly selects to use the protocol (that is, to encrypt the message) and sends a list of available encryption methods to the server. After the server selects one of the available encryption methods, the message communication begins between the server and the client using the selected encryption method.
Thus, in message communication using the SSL protocol, to perform encrypted message communication depends on the client's decision to encrypt the message. Similarly, when using other conventional encryption techniques, encrypted communication is performed depending on whether the client chooses to perform encryption. This dependency on the client to decide whether to perform encryption often places a constraint on the performance of the server.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims to provide a message receiving apparatus that determines whether to perform encryption/digital signature on each input message in a message transmitting apparatus according to conditions under which the message is transmitted from the message transmitting apparatus, and the message transmitting apparatus that transmits messages to the message receiving apparatus.
In order to fulfill the above object, the message receiving apparatus of the present invention is a message receiving apparatus for receiving messages from a message transmitting apparatus, the message receiving apparatus including: a first generating unit for generating first data for producing a display which urges a user of the message transmitting apparatus to input a message; a second generating unit for generating second data within the first data for specifying a conversion type for secret communication of the message; a transmitting unit for transmitting the first data including the second data to the message transmitting apparatus; and a receiving unit for receiving the message from the message transmitting apparatus after the first data including the second data has been transmitted to the message transmitting apparatus.
With this construction, the message receiving apparatus generates the first data for producing the display that urges the user of the message transmitting apparatus to input the message, generates the second data within the first data for specifying the conversion type for secret communication of the message, transmits the first data including the second data to the message transmitting apparatus, and subsequently receives the message from the message transmitting apparatus.
Thus, the message receiving apparatus can, according to its intentions such as improvement of the security in communication, freely specify the conversion type for secret communication of the message to be sent from the message transmitting apparatus. Also, the message receiving apparatus can specify a conversion type for each of a plurality of messages to be sent from the message transmitting apparatus.
The above object can also be fulfilled by a message receiving apparatus for receiving messages from a message transmitting apparatus, the message receiving apparatus including: a first receiving unit for receiving first data concerning a use condition of the message transmitting apparatus from the message transmitting apparatus; a first generating unit for generating second data for producing a display which urges a user of the message transmitting apparatus to input a message; a second generating unit for generating third data for specifying a conversion type for secret communication of the message according to the received first data; a transmitting unit for transmitting the second data and the third data to the message transmitting apparatus; and a second receiving unit for receiving the message from the message transmitting apparatus after the second data and the third data have been transmitted to the message transmitting apparatus.
With this construction, the message receiving apparatus receives the first data concerning the use of the message transmitting apparatus from the message transmitting apparatus, generates the second data for producing the display which urges the user of the message transmitting apparatus to input the message, generates the third data for specifying the conversion type for secret communication of the message according to the first data, and transmits the second data and the third data to the message transmitting apparatus. The message receiving apparatus subsequently receives the message from the message transmitting apparatus.
Accordingly, the message receiving apparatus with intentions such as improvement of the security in communication can by itself specify the conversion type for secret communication of the message according to the use condition of the message transmitting apparatus.
Here, the message receiving apparatus may further include an associating unit for associating the first data with conversion type information that indicates whether to perform encryption, which encryption method should be used if performing the encryption, whether to perform digital signature, and which digital signature method should be used if performing the digital signature, wherein the use condition of the message transmitting apparatus shown by the first data corresponds to an attribute of the user of the message transmitting apparatus, and wherein the second generating unit generates the third data according to the conversion type information associated with the first data.
With this construction, the message receiving apparatus, on receiving the first data concerning the user attribute of the message transmitting apparatus, generates the third data according to the conversion type information associated with the first data, the conversion type information indicating whether to encrypt/digitally sign the message and which encryption/digital signature method should be used. The message receiving apparatus then sends the second data and the third data to the message transmitting apparatus and subsequently receives the message converted by the message transmitting apparatus according to the third data.
Accordingly, the message receiving apparatus can specify whether to encrypt/digitally sign the message and which encryption/digital signature method should be used, based on the user attribute of the message transmitting apparatus.
Here, the second data may be written in an HTML format, wherein the third data is written within the second data using tags that extend the HTML format.
With this construction, the message receiving apparatus, on receiving the first data, generates the second data written in the HTML format an
Harada Syunji
Okumura Yasuo
Ono Takatoshi
Saijo Takeshi
Tatebayashi Makoto
Peeso Thomas R.
Price and Gess
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