JP2006264116A - Image output device, image output system, and image output program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To retain security of a document without time and labor by a simple operation when document data received from a host computer via a network is output. <P>SOLUTION: An image output device 2 such as a printer, a host computer 1, or a server 4 holds policy information 23 in which permission or prohibition of outputting an image is set by each application. When the image output device 2 receives document data via a LAN 3 or the like, the application 11 that forms the document data is identified based on the extension of the file name. The permission or prohibition of outputting an image is judged based on the information of the identified application and the policy information 23. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus connected to a host computer via a network such as a LAN, an image output apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral, and an image composed of a host computer and an image output apparatus connected via a network such as a LAN. The present invention relates to an output system and an image output program for executing control of these image output apparatuses.

  In an image output system composed of a host computer and a printing apparatus connected via a LAN, document data created by the user on the host computer is sent to the printing apparatus and output as a paper document. At that time, the document data is temporarily stored in the storage device of the printing apparatus, and the user goes to the front of the printing apparatus and operates the operation panel to output the document. Among these documents, the documents that need to be kept confidential are kept confidential by restricting the users who can output them with a password or the like.

  As an image output apparatus such as a printer in consideration of such confidentiality, for example, a document printing apparatus disclosed in the following Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-152263) is known. The document printing apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is based on means for acquiring the attributes of a user who prints a document file, means for acquiring the attributes of a document file, and the acquired attributes of the user and the document file. The document printing apparatus includes a unit that searches for a security policy that defines printing permission / inhibition and printing requirements and acquires printing requirements, and a unit that enforces the acquired printing requirements at the time of printing.

  Also, an image forming apparatus, a policy distribution server, and a policy interpretation server disclosed in the following Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-166241) are known. The image forming apparatus, the policy distribution server, and the policy interpretation server disclosed in Patent Document 2 include a policy holding unit that holds a security policy that describes a document handling rule, and a policy holding unit that uses a security policy from the outside. The image forming apparatus includes a policy rewriting unit that rewrites the security policy that is held and an operation control unit that controls an operation on the document in accordance with the security policy managed by the policy management unit.

JP 2004-152263 A JP 2004-166241 A

  However, among the above-described conventional techniques, in the case of restricting users that can be output by a password or the like, it is necessary to designate a user who is permitted to output for each document, which is troublesome. In addition, even if the printing apparatus or server has a security policy like the techniques disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, it is necessary to set a category and a security level for the user and the document to be printed. There was a problem that operation was complicated.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to ensure document security with a simple operation without taking time and effort.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 of the present application is
Means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, means for receiving document data, means for discriminating an application in which the received document data is created, discriminated application information and the policy information And a means for determining whether image output of the received document data is permitted or not.

The invention according to claim 2 of the present application is
An image output system having a host computer and an image output device connected via a network,
Means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, means for receiving document data, means for discriminating an application in which the received document data is created, discriminated application information and the policy information And a means for determining whether image output of the received document data is permitted or not.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present application is
An image output device in an image output system having a host computer connected via a network, and an image output device and means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, and receives document data A computer that constitutes an image output apparatus comprising: means for determining the application in which the received document data is created;
The received document data based on the process for receiving the document data, the process for determining the application in which the received document data is created, and the determined application information and the policy information in which image output permission is set for each application And a process for determining whether or not to permit image output.

  The image output device, the image output system, and the image output program of the present invention have the following effects. That is, in the invention according to claim 1 of the present application, the application in which the received document data is created is determined, and whether to permit image output is determined based on the determined application information and policy information. Document security can be secured by simple operation without trouble.

  In the invention according to claim 2 of the present application, in an image output system having a host computer and an image output device connected via a network, the application in which the received document data is created is determined, and the determined application information Since the image output permission / inhibition is determined based on the policy information and the policy information, it is possible to ensure the security of the document with a simple operation without taking time and effort.

  In the invention according to claim 3 of the present application, the computer constituting the image output apparatus receives the document data, the process for determining the application in which the received document data is created, and the determined application information And an image output program characterized in that it executes a process for determining whether or not the image output of the received document data is permitted based on the policy information for which the image output permission is set for each application. The image output apparatus according to claim 1 can be realized. As a result, the security of the document can be ensured by a simple operation without taking time and effort.

  Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples and drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic system diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of an image output system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic system diagram showing the configuration of the second embodiment of the image output system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic system diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the image output system according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of policy information.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic system diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of an image output system according to the present invention. In the image output system shown in FIG. 1, the host computer 1 and the printing apparatus 2 are both connected to the LAN 3, and when the user prints a document, the print data is transferred from the host computer 1 to the printing apparatus 2 via the LAN 3. And the printing apparatus 2 outputs the document.

  The application 11 incorporated in the host computer 1 performs print processing using a certain procedure or API (Application Program Interface) defined by an OS (Operating System). The printer driver 12 creates print data mainly composed of a page description language and arranges it in the spooler 13. The print data arranged in the spooler 13 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2 via the communication unit 14 and the LAN 3 under the control of the OS. At that time, the host ID of the transmission source host computer 1 and the user ID of the user operating the host computer 1 are also transmitted.

  The printing apparatus 2 receives the print data through the communication unit 21 and passes it to the permission control unit 22. When the permission control unit 22 receives the print data, the permission control unit 22 estimates the output application (the application that created the document data) based on the extension of the file name. Alternatively, the data structure of the print data is expanded and information for identifying the output application is added, thereby identifying the output application. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, with reference to the policy information 23 in which permission of image output is set for each application for which document data is created, the output of the application data in the printing apparatus 2 is the host indicated by the host ID. It is determined whether or not the computer 1 and the user indicated by the user ID are permitted.

  Here, for example, the policy information 23 is set such that the CAD software data is permitted to be output only to the staff of the design department, and the financial software data is permitted to be output only to the staff of the accounting department. ing.

  As a result of determining whether image output is permitted or not by referring to the policy information 23 as described above, if it is permitted, the data is passed to the PDL interpretation unit 24 and the printing unit 25 executes printing. On the other hand, when the output of the application data is not permitted, printing is rejected and the print data is discarded. Further, the fact that the data has been discarded is notified to the user of the data transmission source by a preset state notification method, for example, e-mail.

  In this way, for example, if a person other than the design department tries to output CAD data stored in the host computer 1 or the file server, the output is rejected, so that security is maintained.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic system diagram showing the configuration of the second embodiment of the image output system according to the present invention. In the image output system shown in FIG. 2, the policy information 41 is held by the policy server 4, and the printing apparatus 2 inquires the policy server 4 about the policy information 41 when print data is received. That is, the printing apparatus 2 receives the print data at the communication unit 21 and passes it to the permission control unit 22. Upon receiving the print data, the permission control unit 22 estimates an output application based on the extension of the file name, and transmits it to the policy server 4 together with the host ID and user ID.

  The policy server 4 refers to the policy information 41 for the given information, determines whether or not to output the print data, and transmits the permission information to the printing apparatus 2. If the received permission / refusal information indicates output permission, the permission control unit 22 of the printing apparatus 2 passes the data to the PDL interpretation unit 24 and executes printing by the printing unit 25. On the other hand, if the received permission / refusal information indicates that output is not permitted, printing is rejected and the print data is discarded. Further, the fact that the data has been discarded is notified to the user of the data transmission source by a preset state notification method, for example, e-mail.

  If the policy information 41 is held in the policy server 4 in this way, the security policy can be managed centrally, and the uniformity of the policy is ensured.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic system diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the image output system according to the present invention. In the image output system shown in FIG. 3, the policy information 16 is held in the host computer 1, and when printing is requested, the host computer 1 determines whether printing is permitted. That is, when a print request is issued from the application 11, the printer driver 12 notifies the permission control unit 15 of the result of identifying the application. In response, the permission control unit 15 refers to the policy information 16 and whether the output of the application data is permitted for the host computer 1 indicated by the host ID and the user indicated by the user ID. Determine whether or not.

  As a result, if it is permitted, a permission signal is issued to the printer driver 12. In response to this, the printer driver 12 creates print data and arranges it in the spooler 13. The print data arranged in the spooler 13 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2 via the communication unit 14 and the LAN 3 under the control of the OS. On the other hand, when the output of the application data is not permitted, a rejection signal is output to the printer driver 12. In response, the printer driver 12 discards the print request. In addition, the fact that the print request has been discarded is displayed on the screen.

  If the policy information 16 is held in the host computer 1 in this way, policy uniformity is difficult to maintain, but the policy server 4 becomes unnecessary.

  In each of the above embodiments, the policy information 23, 41, 16 and the like have been described as being held in any one of the printing device 2, the policy server 4, and the host computer 1, but the printing device 2, the policy server 4, The host computer 1 and the policy server 4 may be held at a plurality of locations. In this case, priorities are assigned to the respective policy information, and if both are valid, the higher priority is adopted, and if one of them is not usable, the determination is made based on the remaining policy information.

  As described above, in the present invention, in order to determine whether image output of the document data is permitted or not from the application that created the document data and the policy information, for example, the document data created by financial software (accounting processing application) Permits the person concerned in the department to output the image of the document data, and the document data such as the design drawing created by the CAD software permits the person concerned in the research and development department to output the image of the document data, Image output can be rejected, and permission / rejection of image output can be automatically controlled simply by associating an application with a department. It should be noted that the permission level of image output by the job title in the department related to the application can be set by policy information.

  Note that the document data in the present invention does not indicate only a document created by text data, but also includes design drawing data created by design software such as CAD. In each of the above-described embodiments, the image output apparatus is a printing apparatus. However, the present invention is applied to a case where a multifunction machine having a combined function of a printer, a copier, a fax machine, a fax machine, or the like is used. It goes without saying that can also be applied.

1 is a schematic system diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of an image output system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic system diagram showing a configuration of a second embodiment of the image output system according to the present invention. It is a schematic system diagram which shows the structure of 3rd Example of the image output system concerning this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of policy information.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host computer 11 ... Application 12 ... Printer driver 13 ... Spooler 14 ... Communication part 15 ... Authorization control part 16 ... Policy information 2 ... Printing apparatus 21 ... Communication part 22 ... Authorization control part 23 ... Policy information 24 ... PDL interpretation part 25 ... Printer 3 ... LAN
4 ... Policy server 41 ... Policy information

Claims (3)

  Means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, means for receiving document data, means for discriminating an application in which the received document data is created, discriminated application information and the policy information An image output apparatus comprising: means for determining whether or not the image output of the received document data is permitted. An image output system having a host computer and an image output device connected via a network,
Means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, means for receiving document data, means for discriminating an application in which the received document data is created, discriminated application information and the policy information And an image output system comprising: means for determining whether image output of the received document data is permitted or not. An image output device in an image output system having a host computer connected via a network, and an image output device and means for holding policy information in which image output permission is set for each application, and receives document data A computer that constitutes an image output apparatus comprising: means for determining the application in which the received document data is created;
The received document data based on the process for receiving the document data, the process for determining the application in which the received document data is created, and the determined application information and the policy information in which image output permission is set for each application And a process for determining whether or not the image output is permitted.

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