Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – System access control based on user identification by...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-16
2004-06-15
Barrón, Gilberto (Department: 2132)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
System access control based on user identification by...
C713S186000, C713S155000, C386S282000, C386S285000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06751733
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote authentication system identifying a person with biometrics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, so as to perform security protection in an information processing system connected to a network, it is necessary to identify a person and to judge approval or disapproval of access of the person, that is, to perform authentication. In addition, in cash dispensers of banks and the like, authentication for identifying a person and accessing the person's transaction information, and authentication for entrance into and exit from confidential research sites, membership clubs, and the like, which have high confidentiality, are performed.
Identification of a person and authorization of the person's qualification, that is, authentication is performed with a magnetic card, an IC card, which are positioned similarly to an identification card and the like, and the person's memory such as a password, and combination of them. There are problems that the authentication cannot be performed because the password is forgotten, and the magnetic card and IC card are lost or broken, and another person, who is not the principal, is authenticated with masquerading by burglary and leakage of password information.
In addition, as one of means for authenticating a user over a network, there is a digital signature for indirectly authenticating the user by authenticating a message created by the user. In the digital signature, first, a message sender attaches a cryptogram that is encrypted from a message digest, into which an original message is compressed, with the sender's cryptographic key to the message. A message receiver confirms that the message is one, which the sender himself/herself sent, and that the message is not tampered, by creating a message digest from the message received, decoding the message digest from the cryptogram, which is attached, with the sender's decoding key, and confirming coincidence of these two message digests.
In addition, in the above-described encryption method, there are a common key encryption method, using the same key for a cryptographic key and a decoding key, and a public key encryption method using different keys for the cryptographic key and decoding key. In the public key encryption method, when one key is set as a secret key and is kept safely and another key is officially announced as a public key, the cryptogram encrypted with the public key cannot be decoded into the original message if a receiver has not the secret key, and hence the sender can transfer the message in such a form that only the receiver, who is desired by the sender, can decode, and the cryptogram encrypted with the secret key can be decoded with the public key into the original message, and hence the receiver can authenticates that the message is one from the sender herself/himself having the secret key.
Heretofore, although, in RFC1421 and RFC1422 (PEM: Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail) that are registered in RFC (Request For Comment) of IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), the digital signature and message encryption are performed with the public key encryption method and common key encryption method, there is a problem that it is necessary to administrate the secret key on the sender's hands since the sender uses the own secret key, for example, to safely keep the secret key with saving the secret key in a floppy disk, a magnetic card, and an IC card.
On the other hand, in the authentication with biometrics information, which is a person's biological characteristic such as finger print information, palm print information, handwriting information, and retina information, it is difficult to perform masquerade and is unnecessary to administrate the information of the secret key so long as the user himself/herself presents, and it is possible to resolve the complexness of keeping a baggage and the threat of loss at the time of the authentication of a person and the complexness of memory at the time of the authentication of a password with the magnetic card and IC card. Nevertheless, there are problems that, if the authentication with the biometrics information is necessary in a wide range, the equipment for performing the centralized administration and authentication of the biometrics information is necessary, and that it is necessary to keep security with concealing the user's biometrics information at the time of transferring the biometrics information to the equipment, performing the authentication, from the viewpoint of protection of privacy.
Furthermore, in general, random numbers are for creating a cryptographic key in a system creating the cryptographic key used for concealing the biometrics information. Nevertheless, there is also a problem that it is important to eliminate the tendency of the random numbers so as to make it difficult to break the cryptographic key.
In addition, an apparatus acquiring biometrics should be properly administrated from the viewpoint of protection of users' privacy, and it is necessary to authenticate an administrator. Nevertheless, there is a problem that, since another person cannot act for the administrator if the authentication of this administrator was performed with biometrics, another person can never perform the access to the biometrics acquisition apparatus including initialization. Furthermore, there is a problem that even a valid administrator can never perform the access to the biometrics acquisition apparatus including initialization if the biometrics used for the authentication is largely changed or lost by suffering damage in an accident in case of the valid administrator.
Moreover, in general, a system performing user authentication is required to find an invalid authentication, for example, as for a cash card in a bank, there is means for making a cash card unusable if authentication with a preset number of times of password inputs is unsuccessful. Also, a user authentication system with the biometrics is required to find an invalid authentication. Nevertheless, a condition of biometrics is different for every person, for example, in a system authenticating a person with finger print matching, a minimum matching rate identifying a person as the principal is determined, but a person whose finger is rough or worn gets a low matching rate even if the person can obtain the best biometrics information at the time, and a failure probability of the authentication itself increases if the matching rate decreases due to minor failure such as insufficient contact at the time of acquiring the finger print. Therefore, there is a problem that it cannot be equally performed for all the persons that it is judged to be an unsuccessful authentication within only the preset number of times.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is provided to solve the above problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a remote authentication system which securely authenticates by utilizing biometrics information, which is the user's personal information, and is firm on security when performing authentication of a person with the biometrics information, and a remote authentication method.
In a remote authentication system, in which an authentication server, an application server, and a user terminal are connected to a network respectively, and which authenticates a user using the user terminal, a remote authentication system according to a first invention is a system, wherein the authentication server has a pair of a public key and a secret key in a public key encryption method, announces the public key, and conceals the secret key; wherein at least one kind or a plural kind of biometrics acquisition apparatus is connected to the user terminal; wherein the biometrics acquisition apparatus: encrypts user's biometrics information, acquired at the time of authentication, with a common key in a common key encryption method; acquires date and time information, creates a message d
Baba Yoshimasa
Fujii Teruko
Nakamura Hiroshi
Sadakane Tetsuo
Barrón Gilberto
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Lanier Benjamin E
Mitsubishi Denki & Kabushiki Kaisha
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