JP2003264540A - Method and system for distributing information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information distributing method and system by which information can be prevented from being leaked even though a third person illegally accesses the system. <P>SOLUTION: Encryption information obtained by encrypting personal information recorded in a personal information database 10 is recorded in an encryption database 1, and a decryption key server 2 with a decryption key for decrypting the encryption information is prepared. When a user terminal 6 accesses a WWW server 4, an application server 3 authenticates the user, then extracts corresponding encryption information and decryption key from the encryption database 1 and the decryption key server 2 by using the user ID of the accessing user and decrypts the encryption information by using the decryption key to obtain the user personal information. The decrypted personal information is transmitted to the user terminal 6 through the WWW server 4 and a network 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for delivering highly confidential information such as personal information via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, personal documents (personal documents) such as telephone usage statements and credit card bills have been delivered mainly by paper media. In recent years, the development of computer and network technology,
With the progress of computerization of documents, methods of delivering documents via networks have been used.

[0003]

When personal information is managed in a database and a document is created for network distribution, encryption is usually performed during transmission to prevent leakage of personal information to a third party. did it. However, the information itself in the database is not encrypted, and there is a problem that the information is leaked when a third party illegally accesses it through the network.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide an information distribution method and system capable of preventing information leakage even if a third party illegally accesses the information.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention utilizes an encryption database in which encryption information obtained by encrypting personal information and a decryption key server for decrypting the encryption information are used. As a method of distributing information by using the user ID, a step of authenticating the user by access from the user, a step of requesting information corresponding to the user ID using the user ID obtained in the user authentication, and a step of using the user ID Then, the step of acquiring the encryption information and the decryption key corresponding to the user ID from the encryption database and the decryption key server, and the personal information that can recognize the obtained encryption information by using the obtained decryption key. Decrypting, converting the decrypted personal information into browsing information in a viewable format, and converting the transformed browsing information into the user information. Characterized by being adapted to perform the step of transmitting to The terminal. According to the present invention, encryption information obtained by encrypting personal information is recorded in an encryption database, a decryption key for decrypting this encryption is registered in a decryption key server, and information from an authorized user is stored. When a request is made, the user's ID is used to extract the corresponding decryption key, and this decryption key is used to decrypt the encrypted information and provide it to the user. Even if the database is accessed illegally, the contents of the information cannot be seen, so that the leakage of the information can be minimized.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. (1. System Configuration) FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an information distribution system according to the present invention. In FIG.
Reference numeral 1 is an encrypted database, 2 is a decryption key server, 3 is an application server, 4 is a WWW server, 5 is a network, and 6 is a user terminal.

The encrypted database 1 is a customer (user).
It is a database that records the personal information of
Information other than the user ID for identifying the individual user is encrypted and does not make sense. The decryption key server is a server computer that manages a decryption key for decrypting the encrypted information recorded in the encrypted database to obtain recognizable personal information. The application server 3 has a function of decrypting the encrypted information recorded in the encrypted database 1 with the corresponding decryption key in the decryption key server 2 to restore the personal information when a request is made from the WWW server 4. It is a server computer that has. W
The WW server 4 is a server computer that provides a WWW (World Wide Web) function, and performs "user authentication" when a request for browsing personal information is made from the user terminal 6.
It has a function of transmitting a request for personal information acquisition (browsing) to the application server when the user is recognized as a correct user. The network 5 is a communication line for transmitting and receiving data such as the Internet, and may be physically wired or wireless. The user terminal 6 is a terminal device used by a user, and is a personal computer, mobile phone, or the like that can send and receive data via a network.
It can be realized by a PDA (Personal Digital Asisitance: mobile terminal) or the like.

Next, the information recorded in the encrypted database 1 will be described. As described above, the encrypted database 1 stores encrypted information that is meaningless by encrypting personal information. This encrypted information is obtained by encrypting the personal information recorded in the personal information database 10 with an encryption key. FIG. 2 shows an example of personal information recorded in the personal information database. As shown in FIG. 2, as the personal information,
Various information including user ID, name, telephone number, usage fee, and billing date is recorded. A user ID is assigned to each personal information to identify each user.
Such personal information is managed by a trader or the like who has obtained this personal information, and the personal information database is also separated from the external network, making it impossible to access from the outside. Such personal information is encrypted using a different encryption key for each user to obtain encrypted data. Encrypted data is a personal information database
It is recorded in a completely separated encrypted database. FIG. 3 shows an example of the encrypted information recorded in the encrypted database. In FIG. 3, the shaded portions indicate that the information is unrecognizable because it is encrypted. As shown in FIG. 3, all the encrypted information is encrypted except the user ID. The encryption key for encryption is different for each user. Since various known methods can be applied as the encryption method, detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

A decryption key corresponding to the encryption key used for encryption is registered in the decryption key server 2 in association with the user ID. FIG. 4 shows the decryption key information registered in the decryption key server. Also in the decryption key server, the decryption key itself is information that has no meaning other than its function as a key composed of random numbers such as letters and numbers, but only the user ID is identifiable information. . In both the encrypted information in the encrypted database 1 and the decryption key server in the decryption key server, only the user ID is externally identifiable information because the application server 3 decrypts the encrypted information. This is because the correspondence can be established when performing.

(2. Processing Flow) Next, the processing operation of the information distribution system shown in FIG. 1 will be described together with the information distribution method according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the information distribution method according to the present invention. First, in order to allow the user to check his / her usage details, the WWW server 4 that opens the target site via the Internet by activating the WWW browser installed in his / her user terminal 6
Is accessed (step S1). WWW server 4
User authentication is performed to confirm whether or not the accessing user is the person who should show the statement (step S2). Specifically, the user is requested to input the user ID and the password, and whether the user is a valid user is authenticated depending on whether the user ID and the password input by the user match the registered one.

When the user authentication is correctly performed and it is confirmed that the user is a legitimate user, the WWW server 4 passes the user ID obtained from the user to the application server 3 and requests a usage statement corresponding to the user ID. Is performed (step S3). In the application server 3,
In accordance with the request from the WWW server 4, the user ID received is used for the encryption database 1 and the decryption key server 2.
To obtain the encryption information and the decryption key (step S4). Subsequently, the application server 3 decrypts the acquired encrypted information using the acquired decryption key to restore the personal information (step S5). Further, in the application server 3, the restored personal information is poured into a predetermined layout to create usage statement information in a format that is easy for the user to see as a usage statement (step S).
6). Specifically, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Lang)
uage) and so on.

The created usage statement information is transmitted to the user terminal 6 in the HTML format via the WWW server 4 and the network 5 and is displayed on the screen by the WWW browser installed in the user terminal 6 (step S7). ). This allows a legitimate user to confirm his / her usage details.

(3. Physical Configuration Example) In the information distribution system according to the present invention, personal information that is recognizable information is encrypted because it is not connected to the network and is not recognizable as it is. The feature is that the information is connected to the network. A decryption key is required to decrypt the encrypted information, but since this decryption key is managed by the decryption key server 2 which is different from the encryption database 1, a third party can obtain personal information illegally. If this is attempted, it will be necessary to access both the encrypted database 1 and the decryption key server 2. Therefore, it has a great effect on preventing unauthorized access by a third party. If this purpose can be achieved, the encrypted database 1 and the decryption key server 2 may physically be in the same server computer. However, it is necessary to have a configuration in which it is recognized as a completely different computer for access from the outside. Further, although the application server 3 and the WWW server 4 are configured by different server computers in the present embodiment, they may be physically configured by the same server computer. However, from the viewpoint of preventing unauthorized access, which is the main purpose of the present invention, another computer is preferable.

FIG. 6 shows a physical configuration example of the information distribution system according to the present invention. In the example of FIG. 6, the encrypted database 1, the decryption key server 2, the application server 3,
The WWW server 4 is physically composed of one server computer. Further, another configuration example is shown in FIG.
In the example of FIG. 7, the encrypted database 1 and the decryption key server 2
Is physically one server computer, and the application server 3 and the WWW server 4 are physically one server computer.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An encryption database that records encryption information that encrypts personal information and a decryption key server for decrypting the encryption information are prepared, the user is authenticated by the access from the user, and the user ID obtained in the user authentication Request the information corresponding to the user ID using
By using D, the encryption information and the decryption key corresponding to the user ID are acquired from the encryption database and the decryption key server, and the encrypted information obtained by using the obtained decryption key is converted into recognizable personal information. Since the information is decrypted, the decrypted personal information is converted into browsing information in a viewable format, and the converted browsing information is transmitted to the user terminal, a third party may illegally write in the encrypted database. Even if an access is made, it is possible to prevent the leakage of information to the minimum.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an information distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of personal information recorded in a personal information database used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of encrypted information recorded in an encrypted database used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of decryption key information recorded in a decryption key server used in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an outline of an information distribution method according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a physical configuration example of an information distribution system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a physical configuration example of an information distribution system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... encrypted database 2 Decryption key server 3 ... Application server 4 ... WWW server 5 ... Network 6 ... User terminal 10 ... Personal information database

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method for distributing information using an encryption database in which encryption information obtained by encrypting personal information and a decryption key server for decrypting the encryption information are provided, wherein the user access A step of authenticating a user by using the user ID obtained in the user authentication, a step of requesting information corresponding to the user ID using the user ID obtained from the user authentication; Obtaining encryption information and a decryption key corresponding to the user ID, decrypting the obtained encryption information into recognizable personal information by using the obtained decryption key, and decrypting the decrypted information. Converting the personal information into browsing information in a browsable format, and transmitting the converted browsing information to the user terminal. An information distribution method characterized by: 2. An encrypted database in which personal information is encrypted by using a predetermined encryption key and registered, and a decryption key in which a decryption key corresponding to the encryption key and decrypting the information encrypted by the encryption key is registered. In accordance with the server and the document browsing request from the user, the encrypted personal information corresponding to the user is extracted from the encrypted database, and the decryption key corresponding to the encrypted personal information is extracted from the decryption key server. An application server that extracts and uses the extracted decryption key to decrypt the encrypted personal information into personal information that can be browsed, and a WWW server that transmits the personal information received from the application server to the user. An information distribution system characterized by having. 3. A method of authenticating a user by accessing the computer by the user, a step of requesting information corresponding to the user ID by using the user ID obtained in the user authentication, and a step of using the user ID. From the encryption database and the decryption key server to the user I
Obtaining encryption information and a decryption key corresponding to D,
Decrypting the obtained encrypted information into recognizable personal information using the obtained decryption key, converting the decrypted personal information into browsing information in a viewable format, the conversion A program for executing the step of transmitting the browsed information to the user terminal.