JP2000324099A - Device and method for electronic information generation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method that generate electronic information to realize information exchange where a function for encryption or decoding is not required or minimized in a system for an information recipient side. SOLUTION: This electronic information generator is provided with an encryption means 11 that encrypts a plurality of information sets any of which a recipient selects according to a prescribed encryption algorithm and with a file generating means 12 that generates one file F that includes a plurality of the encrypted information sets which are sent to a specific recipient. The recipient side selects any of the encrypted information included in the transmitted file F and transmits the selected information to a sender so as to transmit the encrypted information without the encryption of information by the recipient.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for exchanging confidential information on a public computer network, and more particularly to an apparatus for generating mutually exchanged electronic information on the information sender side. About the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electronic information is widely exchanged on a public computer network such as the Internet using electronic mail or other means. In such an environment, there is an information exchange format in which a receiver of information selects a specific one from a plurality of options included in information from a sender and answers the sender. For example, in a member-based English conversation classroom, there is an example in which a member selects a specific time from the schedule table via a network and makes a time reservation in response to the transmission of the schedule table from the organizer of the English conversation classroom. . When exchanging such information on a public network, it is necessary to ensure the confidentiality of the information.

A widely known method for securing the confidentiality of information on a network is a method using information encryption technology. FIG. 5 shows one method of transmitting and receiving information in the above information exchange format using an encryption technique.
Here, an example in which the plaintexts 1 to 4 (these are, for example, the reservation date and time) as the information are collectively transmitted to the applicant of the reservation, and the applicant selects one of the plaintexts from among the replies and replies. Is shown. The sender of the information, that is, the reception side 50 of the reservation, collects the plaintexts 1 to 4 on which the reservation date and time are written, and encrypts them by a predetermined encryption algorithm.
One encrypted file to a specific applicant.

[0004] On the applicant side 55, the received encrypted file is decrypted by a decryption algorithm prepared corresponding to the above-mentioned encryption algorithm. Then, any one of the plaintexts (plaintext 1 in the example in the figure) is selected from the plaintexts 1 to 4 contained therein as a time to be reserved by the user. The selected plaintext 1 is encrypted by an encryption algorithm provided in the system of the applicant side 55 and transmitted to the reception side 50 as the ciphertext 1. The accepting side 50 decrypts the ciphertext 1 using a decryption algorithm prepared as corresponding to the encryption algorithm, and confirms the reservation date and time. As described above, the plaintexts 1 to 4 transmitted from the reception side 50 and the plaintext 1 transmitted from the applicant side 55 are encrypted on the communication path, and their confidentiality is secured to a third party.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional method, the same encryption and decryption functions are required in both the reception side system and the applicant side system. In general, there is a problem in that the terminal on the applicant side has a low data processing performance, and the load on the terminal due to encryption and decryption processing requiring relatively high-level data processing becomes relatively large. Further, in some cases, a general applicant has to construct or set up a system for encryption and decryption by himself / herself, and these procedures are burdened on the member who is the applicant.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an electronic information generating apparatus and an electronic information generating apparatus for realizing exchange of information that does not require or minimize the function of encryption or decryption in a system on the information receiver side. It is to provide a method.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic information generating apparatus according to the present invention comprises an encrypting means for encrypting a plurality of pieces of information for selection by a receiver by a predetermined encryption algorithm. File generating means for generating one file for transmission to a specific recipient including the plurality of pieces of encrypted information.

Further, the present invention further comprises a decryption means for decrypting at least one of the encrypted information returned from the receiver by a decryption algorithm corresponding to the encryption algorithm. be able to.

Further, the present invention can further comprise a file encryption means for encrypting the one file with a predetermined encryption algorithm.

[0010] Also, the electronic information generation method of the present invention includes an encryption procedure for encrypting a plurality of pieces of information to be selected by a receiver with a predetermined encryption algorithm, and a method for encrypting the plurality of pieces of encrypted information. And a file generation procedure for generating one file for transmission to a specific recipient.

Further, the present invention further comprises a decryption procedure for decrypting at least one of the encrypted information returned from the receiver by a decryption algorithm corresponding to the encryption algorithm. be able to.

Further, the present invention can further comprise a file encryption procedure for encrypting the one file with a predetermined encryption algorithm after the file generation procedure.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on one embodiment shown in the drawings. In the following, the organizer side (hereinafter, referred to as a reception side) of a membership club or the like that accepts a reservation from a member (hereinafter, also referred to as an applicant side) generates a schedule and other information to be sent to the member, The present invention will be described with an example in which a member makes a reservation application on a network based on the generated information.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic information generating apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, an electronic information generation device 10 according to the present invention includes an information encryption unit 1.
1, a file generator 12 and an information decoder 13. The encryption unit 11 is for encrypting a plurality of sentences (hereinafter, referred to as reserved sentences 1 to 4) representing a plurality of reservation application dates and times by a predetermined encryption algorithm. The encryption unit 11 outputs the encrypted ones, that is, the encrypted texts 1 to 4, corresponding to the inputted reserved texts 1 to 4, respectively. The encryption algorithm used in the encryption unit 11 may be in accordance with various existing algorithms that perform decryption with a corresponding decryption algorithm. Even if it is in accordance with a public key method using a public key, a private key is used. The secret key method may be used.

The file generating section 12 receives the ciphertexts 1 to 4 and generates one transmission file F by combining the ciphertexts. The transmission file F can include a sentence indicating the content corresponding to each of the ciphertexts 1 to 4. Further, other information can be included so that the content of the transmission file F functions as a schedule table or other information media for members.

The transmission file F is transmitted to a predetermined member via a computer network by any transmission means. In the Internet and other public networks, the above transmission file is stored on a server accessible by the target member (whether it is installed by the receiving party or by a third party). By accessing this, the member can obtain the target file and read the contents.

The decryption section 13 is for decrypting the cipher text transmitted by the member who is the applicant. The cipher text transmitted by the member (in FIG. 1, cipher text 1) is one of a plurality of cipher texts included in the file. Therefore,
The decryption unit 13 decrypts the encrypted text from the member using a decryption algorithm corresponding to the encryption algorithm that encrypted the reserved texts 1-4. Thus, the reception side can confirm the reservation application date and time desired by the member.

It should be noted that the electronic information generating apparatus 10 and its constituent functions can be constituted by hardware or software incorporated in a dedicated system, or operate on a general-purpose operating system. It can also be configured as application software.

Next, a procedure for applying for a reservation using the transmission file generated by the electronic information generating apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG.
It is the figure which showed the procedure of the reservation application from the applicant side conceptually. In the figure, the electronic information generation device 10 is provided as a part of a system of a reception side 20, and a transmission file F is generated here. As described above, the electronic information generation device 10 encrypts the reserved texts 1 to 4 in the encryption unit 11 to generate the encrypted texts 1 to 4, and further generates the file generation unit 1
In step 2, one transmission file F including the ciphertexts 1 to 4 is generated. The generated transmission file F is sent to the applicant side 25 via a public network.

The member side, that is, the applicant side 25 reads the contents of the received transmission file F and acquires necessary information. If the member has cipher texts 1 to
If the user wants to apply for a reservation at any of the reservation dates and times of 4, the corresponding cipher text is selected and transmitted to the reception side 20 via the open network (cipher text 1 in the example in the figure). At the receiving side 20, the ciphertext is decrypted by the decryption unit 13 and the reservation of the applicant is confirmed. In the above-mentioned reservation application procedure, the reservation application transmitted by the applicant 25 on the open network is encrypted, so that the confidentiality of the application contents in the network is guaranteed. In this case, the cipher text relating to the reservation application is encrypted at the reception side 20 and transmitted to the applicant side 25. Therefore, the applicant side 25 does not need to encrypt this and does not require any equipment for it. It is.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. 3 and 4 are a configuration block diagram of the electronic information generation device according to the present embodiment and a diagram conceptually showing a procedure for applying for a reservation from the applicant side. This embodiment is different from the previous embodiment in that the reception side 40 encrypts the transmission file F and transmits it to the applicant side 45.

That is, the electronic information generation device 30 includes a file encryption unit 34 in addition to the encryption unit 31, the file generation unit 32, and the decryption unit 33 corresponding to the configuration in the above embodiment.
Is provided. The file encryption unit 34
The transmission file F generated in step (1) is encrypted by a predetermined algorithm to generate an encrypted transmission file F ′. The encrypted transmission file F 'is transmitted to the applicant by an arbitrary transmission means. Note that the encryption algorithm used in the file encryption unit 34 may be the same as the algorithm used in the encryption unit 31, or may be different. In the present embodiment, the system of the applicant 45 must have a decryption unit for decrypting the encrypted transmission file F ′ to obtain a readable transmission file F. However, also in the present embodiment, the encrypted texts 1 to 4 obtained by encrypting the reserved texts 1 to 4 are not decrypted here (that is, in the system of the applicant side 45, facilities and equipment for this decryption are used). It is not necessary to have a facility for encrypting the information to be transmitted), and is transmitted to the reception side 40 as in the case of the above embodiment. Therefore, by encrypting the transmission file F and transmitting it on the network as in the present embodiment, the confidentiality of information from the reception side to the applicant side is further improved.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described with reference to the drawings. However, it is apparent that the present invention is not limited to the matters described in the above embodiments, and that changes, improvements, and the like can be made based on the description in the claims. In the above embodiment, the present invention has been described along the case where the information to be transmitted is a reserved sentence. However, the information targeted by the present invention is not limited to such a reserved sentence, but may be various kinds of confidential information, for example, a product application in online shopping.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, when information requiring confidentiality is encrypted and transmitted / received, the information receiver does not need to encrypt the information. Burden is reduced. In this case, since there is no need to intervene a third party such as a certificate authority, the system can be flexibly constructed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an electronic information generation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing a procedure of a reservation application from an applicant in a reservation application system using the electronic information generation device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of an electronic information generation device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram conceptually showing a procedure of a reservation application from an applicant side in a reservation application system using the electronic information generation device of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram conceptually showing a conventional information exchange procedure using an encryption technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Electronic information generation apparatus 11 Encryption part 12 File generation part 13 Decryption part 20 Reception side 25 Applicant side 30 Electronic information generation apparatus 31 Encryption part 32 File generation part 33 Decryption part 34 File encryption part

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B017 AA01 BA07 BB02 BB03 CA16 5J104 AA32 NA27 PA07 9A001 BB03 BB04 CC03 EE03 FZ01 JJ18 JJ25 KK56 LL03

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An encryption means for encrypting a plurality of pieces of information for a recipient to select using a predetermined encryption algorithm, and transmitting the plurality of pieces of information including the plurality of pieces of encrypted information to a specific recipient. An electronic information generating apparatus, comprising: a file generating unit that generates one file for use. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a decryption means for decrypting at least one of the encrypted information returned from the receiver by a decryption algorithm corresponding to the encryption algorithm. Item 2. The electronic information generation device according to Item 1. 3. The electronic information generation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a file encryption unit for encrypting the one file with a predetermined encryption algorithm. 4. An encryption procedure for encrypting a plurality of pieces of information for a recipient to select using a predetermined encryption algorithm, and transmitting the plurality of pieces of information including the plurality of pieces of encrypted information to a specific recipient. And a file generation procedure for generating one file for use in the electronic information generation method. 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: decrypting at least one of the encrypted information returned from the receiver by a decryption algorithm corresponding to the encryption algorithm. Item 4. The electronic information generation method according to Item 4. 6. The electronic information generation method according to claim 4, further comprising a file encryption procedure for encrypting the one file with a predetermined encryption algorithm after the file generation procedure. .