Cryptography – Cryptanalysis
Patent
1992-06-08
1994-08-23
Cangialosi, Salvatore
Cryptography
Cryptanalysis
380 25, 380 52, H04L 900
Patent
active
053414217
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a portable user controlled pointing peripheral such as a "mouse" including a security device for making it possible to protect the data of one or more data processing machines, of the type including at least one memory and/or microcomputer external to the processing machine, so as to permit an exchange of data between the processing machine and the memory or microcomputer of the security device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The state of development of personal or office information processing applications makes manifest an increasingly frequent need to manipulate data that must in some cases remain confidential. The data in such systems are generally stored on highly vulnerable media, such as memories, diskettes, magnetic tape, or even hard disks.
To lend the data a certain confidentiality, protecting them with the aid of passwords has already been proposed. The principle of this is as follows: A user can access an application involving particular data only by using a password, that is, by introducing a succession of alphabetical or numerical or alphanumeric terms with the aid of a keyboard or any other suitable input means. Such a method is not especially reliable, because methods for making it possible for recovering the password, or even circumventing it, exist which makes "pirating" of the application relatively easy.
Another method of protection consists in removing the medium containing the data physically at the end of each application in question. This assumes extreme rigor on the part of the user, and can be considered only if the medium containing the data is removable--which a priori precludes the case in which the data are on the hard disk--and if the medium can be locked up in a secure location after having been removed. Additionally, this is not truly practical unless furthermore, only a single user is capable of manipulating the data in question.
The problem of data protection is accordingly crucial. This is all the more true as lightweight portable computers, which can easily be transported to do work, in particular while traveling, become increasingly more widely used. It is in fact not a rare occurrence by now to see persons using such a machine at the offices of a client, to save time during a transaction or a negotiation. In the absence, however brief, of the user, third parties can profit from the situation by attempting to pierce some of the secrets of the machine, particularly the secrets of the files incorporated in the machine.
The disadvantages of earlier methods have been overcome by proposing the use of memory and/or microcomputer cards, also known as "smart cards" like those described in French Patents 2,401,459 and 2,337,381, corresponding to respective U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,211,919 and 4,222,516, in order to provide extremely certain control of the rights of the user or to protect the files. The subject matter of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,211,919 and 4,222,516 is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The card, or an equivalent portable medium, contains an electronic memory, with secret data, for instance, which are used in processes of verification of the rights of the bearer, or again in processes of memorizing or encoding/decoding of the data to be protected.
Verification or security methods that employ portable articles, such as memory and/or microcomputer cards, are numerous and are not the subject of the present invention. Some control the rights of the bearer by encoding the data to be protected. Others prohibit starting an application unless the card has not been read and the data it includes have been combined with the data to be protected. This latter method is the subject of French Patent 2,523,745, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,553, and provides for associating a memory and/or microcomputer card with applications software. The card contains the information necessary for starting the software and prior dialog between the card and the processing apparatus is necessary. Without it, the applications software cannot be employed.
It should be noted
REFERENCES:
patent: 4924378 (1990-05-01), Hershey et al.
patent: 4942606 (1990-06-01), Kaiser et al.
patent: 5210571 (1993-05-01), Peloquin et al.
patent: 5212729 (1993-05-01), Schafer
Bull CP8
Cangialosi Salvatore
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