JPH1070528A - Confidential communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely send transmitted contents by conducting a notice in advance before the confidential transmission and starting the confidential transmission after it is confirmed that the receiver side is a reception enable state. SOLUTION: A user ID, a password, an electronic mail address and a provider type are registered to a user table 1 for each user and the provider type corresponds to a provider type in a provider table T2. Furthermore, a destination name, an electronic mail address of an opposite party, a facsimile number and its type and a password are registered to each addreviation number and one operation dial number. When the password is a password returned from a receiver side in the case of confidential transmission and the password is received after the transmission of the confidential transmission notice, the table T3 is referenced to discriminate whether or not the confidential transmission is executed. Then the confidential transmission is started after it is confirmed that the password is coincident with the registered password.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a confidential communication method suitably used in a communication terminal device capable of connecting to a computer communication network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a facsimile apparatus has a confidential communication function. According to this, even if a transmission destination is a shared facsimile apparatus, an image transmitted by facsimile only to a specific person is transmitted. Printing output of data can be permitted. The transmitting side selects the confidential mode, specifies the confidential box number of the other party's facsimile machine, and then starts facsimile transmission. On the other hand, the receiving side sequentially stores the received data in the designated confidential box, and displays or prints out the reception of the confidential message together with the destination and the confidential box number, etc. If a password is input, the stored data is read out from the confidential box and printed out on recording paper.

[0003] Recently, computer communication networks such as the Internet have been increasingly used, and the number of people who use them even in ordinary households has been increasing. The use of such a computer communication network requires the user to bear only the communication cost from the personal computer or the like to the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer communication network). Communication can be done at low cost.

In view of such circumstances, communication terminal devices such as facsimile devices capable of connecting to a computer communication network have been developed at present. Facsimile transmission,
Alternatively, the transmission can be made to the communication terminal device of the other party by any of e-mail transmission. That is, when facsimile transmission is selected when transmitting image data, the image data is directly transmitted using a public telephone line network or the like. On the other hand, when electronic mail transmission is selected, the image data is converted into an electronic mail format, and the converted data is stored in a mailbox on the network. Many of the recipients connect the computer network via a telephone line at an appropriate time via a dial-up connection, confirm that an e-mail has been sent, and read image data from the mailbox. .

[0005]

However, in the confidential communication of the above-mentioned conventional facsimile apparatus, if a power failure occurs in the other facsimile apparatus which received the confidential reception, the image data stored in the confidential box disappears. In some cases, important contents of the confidentially transmitted manuscript were not transmitted to the other party. In such a case,
Since the fact that the image data has disappeared is not notified, retransmission of the image data may require a considerable amount of time until the transmitted content is transmitted to the other party.

Recently, as described above, computer communication networks have become widespread, and enhancement of confidential communication using such networks has been studied. The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, prior to confidential transmission, to notify beforehand, to confirm that the receiving side is in a receivable state, to start confidential transmission, It is an object of the present invention to provide a confidential communication method that ensures that transmitted contents are transmitted.

[0007]

In the confidential communication method according to the first aspect of the present invention, which is proposed to achieve the above object, a password for identifying the receiving side is registered in the transmitting side in advance.
When performing confidential transmission, the transmitting side sends a confidential transmission notification to the receiving side in advance, receives a password reply from the receiving side, confirms that this password matches the password registered in advance, and then transmits the confidential transmission. Start.

That is, in the method of the present invention, on the transmitting side,
The reply of the password indicates that the receiving side is in the power-on state (receivable state), so that important data can be transmitted with confidence. On the other hand, on the receiving side, data can be directly received immediately after replying the password by key operation, etc., so there is no need to provide a confidential box as in the past, further maintaining data confidentiality can do.

Here, the confidential transmission and the confidential transmission notification are performed via a public telephone line or a computer communication network. Also, the password that has been used by the receiving side in confidential communication may be used as the password. In other words, the password is assigned to a person who can use confidential reception in advance, and is input in order to print out the data stored in the confidential box and display it on the screen.
If the code is used as it is, the operation on the receiving side does not become complicated.

According to the second aspect, the confidential transmission is performed via a computer communication network.
Performed via a computer communication network. Here, the computer communication network includes the Internet and personal computer communication services such as NIFTY-Serve and PC-VAN. The e-mail service is implemented as one of the services.

As described above, the communication terminal device using the confidential communication method of the present invention can connect to a computer communication network. Examples of this type of device include a facsimile device with an e-mail function and a personal computer with a data communication function.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration for realizing the confidential communication method of the present invention. Here, the operation of the method of the present invention will be described using the facsimile apparatuses with an e-mail function F and Fa in the figure as communication terminals on the transmission side and the reception side, respectively.

The data transmission from the facsimile machine F on the transmission side is performed by connecting the computer communication network N via the telephone station P, transmitting an e-mail, and transmitting the e-mail by the facsimile machine Fa on the reception side at any time. There are a case where the computer communication network N is connected via Pa and an e-mail is received (route ~ ~), and a case where facsimile transmission is performed via a public telephone line (route ~ ~).

[0014] In the method of the present invention, the transmitting side F is previously set to the receiving side F
Register a password identifying a (described later),
Since the transmitting side F transmits data only to a specific person, when performing confidential transmission, the receiving side Fa
A confidential transmission notification indicating that confidential transmission is to be performed, receiving a password reply from the receiving side Fa, confirming that this password matches a previously registered password, and then starting confidential transmission. And

The confidential transmission and the confidential transmission notification may be performed by e-mail transmission or facsimile transmission. However, transmission of the password from the receiving side Fa is performed in consideration of confidentiality and security. It is preferable to use data communication using a public telephone line. The receiving device is the telephone office Pa
Personal computer PCa (root ~) connected to
~~, ~~) or a normal facsimile machine Fb without an e-mail function.

If the receiving side is a normal facsimile apparatus Fb, both the confidential transmission and the confidential transmission notification are transmitted by facsimile (routes-). In this case, the transmission of the password from the receiving side becomes a transmission request, and the polling communication conventionally provided in the normal facsimile apparatus Fb can be realized. The facsimile apparatus F can transmit an e-mail other than the confidential transmission which does not require a password, and can transmit a computer PC (routes ~) connected to a dedicated line or another network Na (routes ~) connected to a LAN. ~) Can also be transmitted.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the basic operation of the confidential communication method. Here, an example is shown in which confidential transmission notification and password transmission are performed over a public telephone line, and confidential transmission is performed by e-mail transmission via the computer communication network N. The sender first sends an e-mail,
The user's own user ID, contract provider, line type, etc. are set (S1). Subsequently, a confidential transmission notification is transmitted by facsimile transmission (S2), and if a password is received from the receiving side (S3), the password is a password registered in advance corresponding to the receiving side. (S4), and if the passwords match,
According to the setting in S1, the provider is automatically called and an e-mail is transmitted (S5).

On the transmitting side, since the password is returned from the receiving side, there is no need to worry that the confidentially transmitted data will be lost. However, here, the receiving side receives the receipt from the receiving side and transmits the data. It has been confirmed that the process has been completed (S6). On the other hand, if the receiving side receives the confidential transmission notification by facsimile (S11), the same setting as that of the transmitting side is performed to receive the e-mail (S12), and then the password is transmitted to the public telephone line by key operation or the like. After that, a confidential reception is automatically performed by e-mail (S14). When the reception is completed, a receipt is transmitted to the transmission side (S15). It should be noted that this receipt may be transmitted by facsimile transmission instead of using the Reply function of the e-mail.

The receiving side can also perform confidential reception by facsimile reception. In this case, the receiving side can operate in the same manner as in the related art. That is, the received image data is sequentially stored in a confidential box (memory) designated by the transmitting side, and the fact that the confidential reception has been performed is printed out or displayed on the screen together with the destination and the confidential box number. Thereafter, when a password corresponding to the confidential box is input, the data stored in the confidential box is decrypted and printed out on a recording sheet or displayed on a screen.

Note that the password used here may be the same as the password returned to the transmitting side,
You may make it different. FIG. 3 shows an example of a confidential transmission notice transmitted before confidential transmission. When the receiving side receives such a confidential transmission notice, a password is returned to the reply destination described here. You can continue confidential reception.

Next, a communication terminal device for implementing the confidential communication method of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of the communication terminal device. Here, the configuration of a facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function that uses the Internet as a computer communication network and uses an electronic mail (e-mail) service on the Internet is shown. That is, the facsimile apparatus has a communication function with the Internet in addition to the conventional G3 and G4 facsimile communication functions.

The CPU 1 not only controls each unit of the facsimile apparatus through the bus 12, but also executes each processing such as encoding / decoding, image conversion, binary / text conversion, mail editing, communication procedure control and the like which will be described later. I do. The reading unit 2 reads a document with a CCD or the like and outputs black and white binary image data. The recording unit 3 includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and records (prints and outputs) image data received from another G3 or G4 facsimile machine or via the Internet. The display unit 4 includes a liquid crystal display device and the like, and displays an operation state of the facsimile apparatus and image data. The operation unit 5 is a numeric keypad,
The facsimile apparatus is provided with abbreviated dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like, and performs various input settings.

The ROM 6 stores software necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine. The RAM 7 stores temporary data generated during execution of the software, and also stores various tables T1 to T3 described later.
The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data. DSU (Data line terminator: Digi
The tal service unit 9 converts transmission / reception data and voltage so that the digital line L1 using the baseband transmission method can be connected. The modem 10 is a conventional FA
It has a data modem function in addition to the X modem function. N
A CU (Network Control Unit) 11 closes and opens the analog line L2.

FIG. 5 schematically shows the flow of data in the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. In this figure, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Although an e-mail conversion unit 20, an encoding / decoding unit 21, and an auto dialer 25, which will be described later, do not exist in FIG.
6 is processed by the CPU 1 based on the software stored in the CPU 6.

The e-mail conversion section 20 is composed of an image conversion section 22, a binary / text conversion section 23, and a mail editing section 24. The conventional facsimile apparatus is provided with the e-mail conversion section 20. In addition to facsimile communication, it enables access to the Internet and use of e-mail services. The encoding / decoding unit 21 encodes or decodes image data according to an encoding method such as MH, MR, and MMR. Less than,
Image data encoded by these encoding methods is referred to as “encoded image data”. The image memory 8 stores the encoded image data.

The image conversion unit 22 converts the encoded image data into a TIFF (Tagged) image, which is a general image format used by a computer, at the time of sending an e-mail.
ImageFile format), while receiving, T
Convert from IFF to encoded image data. TIFF
Is published by adobe company and handles not only black and white binary but also various Cl
ass is defined. One of them defines Class F for handling facsimile images. If the TIFF header information of Class F is added to the head of encoded image data, it can be converted to TIFF. Less than,
The encoded image data to which the Class F TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.

The binary / text converter 23 converts binary data into text data when sending an electronic mail, and converts text data into binary data when receiving an electronic mail. In some cases, computers that cannot handle binary data e-mails are connected to the Internet. To ensure that e-mails reach the recipient, binary data such as TIFF image data must be used. Need to be converted to text data upon transmission.

Text data handled on the Internet is:
Documents issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Fore), RFC (Request For Comments) 82
2 stipulates a 7-bit code.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
If base64 or the like is used, binary data can be converted to text data. In addition, base64 is
This is an encoding method in which binary data of 8 bits × 3 bytes is regarded as 6 bits × 4 bytes, and a binary code is converted to text data by assigning a character code to each byte.

The mail editing unit 24 adds the mail header information to the TIFF image data converted to text data and edits the data in the electronic mail format when transmitting the electronic mail, while it converts the data in the electronic mail format when receiving the electronic mail. Remove mail header information and TIFF of text data
Assume image data. Here, the mail header information refers to predetermined header information of an electronic mail on the Internet, and "From:", "To:", "Subject:", "cc:" at the beginning of the TIFF image data to be transmitted. It is stipulated that items such as "," Date: "are added.

The auto dialer 25 calls the DSU 9, the modem 10, or the NCU 11 to call the telephone number read from the provider table T2 and the destination table T3.
Send phone number data to. With such a configuration, this facsimile apparatus performs facsimile communication and transmits and receives e-mail according to a protocol such as P
Log in using the AP (Password Authentication Protocol) and use the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
l) Data transmission by POP (Post Office Protoco
Perform data reception according to l).

Next, the structure of each of the tables T1 to T3 will be described with reference to FIG. In the user table T1 of FIG. 6A, a user ID and password for logging in to the Internet, an e-mail address (domain name), and a provider type are registered for each user who uses the facsimile machine. Provider type is (b)
Corresponds to the provider type in the provider table T2.

In the provider table T2 of FIG. 6B, the provider name, the line type (analog or digital), and the telephone number of the provider used when connecting to the Internet are registered in correspondence with the provider type. . Thereby, a different login procedure can be identified and executed for each provider, and even if one user uses a plurality of providers or the provider has a plurality of telephone lines, this table T2 is used. Can be dealt with by setting.

In the destination table T3 of FIG. 6C, the destination name, the destination e-mail address, the facsimile number, and the facsimile type (G3 or G4) are stored for each abbreviated number, one-touch dial number, or program one-touch number. , Have registered a password. This password is a password returned from the receiving side at the time of confidential transmission, and if the password is received after transmitting the confidential transmission notification, it is determined whether or not confidential transmission can be executed by referring to this table T3.

Each of the tables T1 to T3 described above can be set in such a manner that the setting contents excluding secret information such as a password can be output in a list form from the recording unit 3 or the display unit 4.
Setting, changing, and confirming operations of 1 to T3 are simplified. In addition,
The present invention can take embodiments other than those described above, and data to be transmitted in the computer communication network N may be data such as audio and video in addition to image data (for example, WWW of the Internet), and data other than the Internet Computer communication network (for example, NIFTY-Se
rve) may be used.

[0035]

As can be understood from the above description, according to the confidential communication method according to the first aspect of the present invention, the transmitting side sends a confidential transmission notification to the receiving side in advance when performing confidential transmission. After receiving the password reply from the receiving side and confirming that this password matches the password registered in advance, confidential transmission is started.

[0036] Therefore, the transmitting side knows that the receiving side is in a receivable state by returning the password, thereby preventing the transmitted data from being erased. Therefore, important data can be transmitted with confidence. On the other hand, if the receiving side returns the password after receiving the confidential transmission notification, it can start receiving data immediately after that, so it is not necessary to provide a confidential box as in the past, , The confidentiality of the data can be further maintained.

Further, since it is possible to freely select whether the confidential transmission and the confidential transmission notification are performed via a public telephone line or a computer communication network, confidential communication appropriate for each device can be performed. According to the second aspect, since the confidential transmission is performed via the computer communication network, the transmitted data is stored in the provider (server) side. Data can be retrieved after recovery.

According to the third aspect, since the confidential transmission notification is performed via the computer communication network, the confidential transmission is not known to others, and the confidentiality can be further increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a system using a confidential communication method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a basic operation of a confidential communication method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a confidential transmission notice.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of an internal configuration of a communication terminal device that implements the confidential communication method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a data flow in the communication terminal device of FIG. 4;

6 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a table stored in the communication terminal device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 N: Computer communication network F, Fa: Facsimile machine with e-mail function 20: E-mail converter 22: Image converter 23: Binary / text converter 24: Mail editor T1: User table T2: Provider table T3: Destination table

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Agency reference number FI Technical display location H04N 1/44 H04N 1/44

Claims (3)

[Claims] A password for identifying the receiving side is registered in the transmitting side in advance, and when performing confidential transmission, the transmitting side sends a confidential transmission notification to the receiving side in advance and receives a password reply from the receiving side. A confidential communication method comprising: confirming that this password matches the previously registered password; and starting confidential transmission. 2. The confidential communication method according to claim 1, wherein the confidential transmission is performed via a computer communication network. 3. The confidential communication method according to claim 1, wherein the confidential transmission notification is performed via a computer communication network.