JP2001155033A - Open distributed network database mechanism capable of improving security of data and distributing load by retrieving data with robot program transmitted to network and processing data on network client device stored with data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To almost eliminate the data managing cost generated with the execution of database business on a server side although the managing cost is increased since a database is constructed on plural servers inside a protected closed network in a conventional distributed database utilizing an open network. SOLUTION: A database operation subject stops the management of data on the open network, but each data subjects manages its own data. By using such a mechanism, data on a data client side are not sent to the network on any stage of processing as they are. Therefore, the security of data is remarkably improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a network client side device for storing data (hereinafter referred to as a data client da).
(client client) and a network client-side device that issues a query for data search (hereinafter, query client), and a robot program that autonomously performs data search in response to a data search query from the query client and releases it. It consists of a network server (hereinafter, server) for transmitting to the type network. One client can be both a data client and a query client.

A data client is a device connected to a network, and stores various data. Some of these data are stored in a storage area that can be directly referenced from the network (online online).
ine) is stored in a storage area that cannot be directly referred to from the network (offline offlin).
There is also e). “Can be directly referenced” refers to a state in which data can be referenced by a protocol such as http that sends data to a network application such as a Web browser. The present invention is characterized in that reference and processing of data in an offline state are performed on a data client side while being isolated from a network.

[0003] Each of the data stored in the data client has a certain level of security and reliability (hereinafter, referred to as "standard").
An index for instructing a query client in the security standard) to send data is added. The data client stores a program for executing a robot program generated in response to an inquiry from the query client, that is, a run-time module. This runtime module includes:
(A) a function of decrypting and verifying the server encryption key to check whether the robot program has been sent from a reliable server, and permitting subsequent processing;
(B) a function of decrypting and interpreting an encrypted query (hereinafter, query data) held by the robot program, and (c) evaluating security standard information of the query client side held by the robot program. To allow data processing for any data,
It also has a function of determining whether to send processed data via the network, and (d) a function of sending the processed data to the network in an encrypted form that can be decrypted only by the server that created the robot program.

[0004] A query client is a device connected to a network, and issues an inquiry about data held by a data client. However, it is not possible to directly search and process data stored in a data client in an offline state, which is a feature of the present invention. This is because offline data cannot be accessed from the network side. The query client makes an inquiry directly to the server. Query clients include:
An ID (identifier) is provided from the server.

[0005] In response to an inquiry from a query client, the server generates a robot program for searching for a data client distributedly connected to the network, and transmits the robot program to the network. When the server receives a query from the query client, it first checks whether the query itself is legal, security, and privacy-appropriate, and stops processing if the query is inappropriate. If there is no inappropriate query, refer to the ID of the query client,
Check against the reputation database for security criteria of the query client stored on the server.
(A) If data relating to the security criteria of the query client is stored in the database, the server combines the contents of the query and the evaluation relating to the security criteria of the query client, and furthermore, the query data encrypted by the encryption key of the server itself. Generate.
(B) If there is no evaluation regarding the security criterion of the query client, the evaluation with the lowest criterion is given, and the same processing as in (a) is performed to generate query data. The query data is decrypted in the runtime module on the data client side, and a robot program for performing the inquiry offline is automatically generated and transmitted to the network.

[0006] The robot program is a small-scale program generated by a server and sent to a network to search for a data client. When a data client is found on the network, the stored query data is combined with a runtime module of the data client to enable processing of data in an offline state. The robot program has (a) a query by the query client, query data by the server, which comprises data relating to the security standard of the query client, (b), and the encryption key of the server that generated the robot program. When the robot program is received by the data client, it checks for the existence of the runtime module. If the runtime module is present, the robot program passes the query data to the runtime module stored in the data client, and the off-line module is disconnected from the network for further processing. In the state of.
The data processed off-line by the runtime module is transmitted to the server by encrypting the processed data using the encryption key of the server.

[0007] The server decrypts the data sent from each data client with its own encryption key, aggregates the data,
Final processing such as rearrangement and integration is performed, and the encrypted data is transmitted to the query client that issued the inquiry. This cipher is decrypted only by the query client that issued the query.

In this database mechanism, data exists only on the data client side and is not stored on the server. This reduces the data management costs on the server side, and also makes it possible to manage information, such as personal information, that is not preferably under the control of another person at his / her own expense. In the database on the data client side, (a) an index indicating what kind of data is disclosed in response to an inquiry from a query client having a certain security standard is added to each data item. be able to. This gives the data client the ability to limit the data items disclosed in response to the security and reliability of the query client. The search is autonomously performed by a robot program generated by the server in response to a query on the query client side. That is, the query client cannot make an inquiry directly to the data client. As a result, the server can evaluate (b) the security and reliability of the query client, and can incorporate the reliability data of the inquiry into the robot program. The data that can be obtained by the robot program is determined by the combination of the reliability data (b) and the data (a) described above. This makes it possible for the server to block inquiries of a type having privacy and security problems.

[0009] The robot program is distributed to the system on the data client side through the network, and is executed on the data client side. Data stored on the data client side is disconnected from the network and cannot be directly accessed from the network. By executing the robot program in combination with the runtime module of the data client,
For the first time, data processing on the data client side is started.

[0010] The robot program extracts items matching the inquiry from the data held on the data client side, encrypts the items and sends them to the server. As a result, the data on the data client side is not transmitted from the data client to the outside in plain text. The encrypted data can only be decrypted by going through the server that created the robot program for the search. As a result, data requiring privacy and security protection (hereinafter, sensitive data) can be securely transmitted and received on an open network such as the Internet.

[0011]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a network operated by connecting a plurality of computers, and an apparatus for collecting, searching, integrating, and displaying data stored in a distributed manner in the network.

[0012]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, a database is stored in a computer called a host or a server, and receives data input from a client computer connected to the server or performs a search inquiry process. In a distributed database, data stored in a plurality of servers connected to a network can be cross-searched to make it appear as if a single database is used. A search engine service using the Internet enables a large number of contents existing on the Internet to be handled as a distributed database. However, publishing sensitive data on open networks without security features is dangerous. Therefore, the database on sensitive data
It is usually built on a single server protected by a security system or on multiple servers inside a closed network.

[0013]

In the prior art, a database for handling data is stored in a single server,
It could only be built on multiple servers inside a closed network protected by a security system.
This means that data such as personal information is inevitably managed under the database operation entity. With the enactment of the Personal Information Protection Law and the establishment of international standards for the protection of personal information, the cost of collecting, retaining, and managing data has increased dramatically. In addition, as a general tendency in the personal information protection legislation, it is desirable that data is managed by the data subject (the person who is the source of the data). In a conventional single or closed network database, it has been difficult to realize management by a data subject.

The above problem can be solved by each data subject managing its own data, but for that purpose, it is necessary to publish the data on an open network such as the Internet where the security mechanism is not sufficient. There is. If this is possible, it is possible to construct a substantially large-scale distributed database without storing data on the server side by the same mechanism as the conventional search engine service. This greatly reduces the cost of maintaining data for database operations. However, this method lacks a means for protecting data, and is not feasible.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention enables data management on a data client existing on a network. In particular, by providing indexes on the required security and reliability of each item of the data set, the evaluation of the required security of each individual data item can be determined on the data client side. In addition, since the third party server evaluates the security criteria of the query client and generates the robot program that executes the query on the server side, the server is able to control the distributed data clients. Data security.

The present invention has three components. One is a data client that exists on a network and holds data. The second is a query client that exists on the network and issues queries. The third is a server that evaluates and evaluates the security standards of query clients and generates programs that execute queries.

The inquiry issued from the query client is checked once on the server side to determine whether it contains an inappropriate inquiry. If you have inappropriate inquiries,
Here, the process ends. If there is no inappropriate inquiry, the server generates a robot program for executing the inquiry. This robot program has, as data, information necessary for authentication of a server that has generated the robot program, and evaluation on the server side regarding security criteria on a query client side that has issued an inquiry. The robot program is transmitted to a network and received by a data client connected to the network.

After receiving the robot program, the data client confirms that the robot program has been correctly generated by the server by an authentication system provided in a runtime module held by the data client. Subsequently, the runtime module executes the query processing offline based on the query data stored in the robot program. The runtime module refers to the data client side data based on the security standard evaluation of the query client that issued the inquiry. If the security criterion on the query client side is lower than the security criterion added to the requested data, no data is collected even if an inquiry is made. In this way, when a series of query operations is completed, the runtime module converts the collected data into a code that can be decrypted only by the server that generated the robot program,
Send to server.

The server decrypts the encrypted data sent from the robot program, and performs operations such as totalizing, organizing, and integrating the data. The query result generated in this way may be encrypted and sent to the query client side, or displayed in the form of a Web page protected by a security system.

By using the above mechanism, the data client can independently manage the data held in the data client. Further, the data on the data client side is not sent to the network in any form at any stage of the processing. For this reason, data security is dramatically improved. Since the data itself is not stored on the server side, the data management cost that accompanies the server side performing the database business can be reduced to almost zero. In addition, it can provide services such as rating of security standards on the query client side and blocking of inappropriate queries,
It becomes possible to satisfy the security and reliability requirements of the data client more.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the case of handling data relating to individuals and households such as family register, resident's card, resume, household, etc., legal and institutional costs for database maintenance and management are avoided, and the contents of data are always updated. Can be maintained. Due to this advantage, it can be used in national and local government databases and citizen management databases. Also, in job seeking activities via a network, it can be used as a method for safely distributing history information. Further, the present invention can be applied to a database system in which purchase / settlement history information in online shopping is stored on the user side.

Currently, personal financial and credit information is:
They are held by financial institutions and credit institutions. However, from the viewpoint of privacy, it is desirable that asset management be performed by the person himself. By applying the present invention,
Financial and credit information about each individual can be combined with the household account book software and used as a comprehensive asset management database. That is, an asset management database is constructed as a data client in the present invention. At this time, since the financial institution and the credit institution do not need to hold the sensitive data of each individual, the data management cost can be significantly reduced. Data such as information on fluctuating interest rates and exchange rates and credit card usage histories are sent to a network as a robot program, and related items in the comprehensive asset management database of each household are changed as needed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall system diagram showing an open distributed network database mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a chart showing a data processing process according to the present invention.

Continuation of the front page (54) [Title of the Invention] By performing data search by a robot program transmitted to the network and performing data processing on the network client device storing the data, improvement of data security and Open distributed network / database mechanism that realizes load distribution

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network client-side device for storing data, a network client-side device for issuing a data search inquiry, and a program for autonomously performing a data search in response to a data search inquiry from a network client. , A distributed database mechanism consisting of network servers sending to open networks. Data retrieval is performed autonomously by the generated program, and data processing is executed on the network client side that stores the data, thereby enabling distributed management of data on the client side, while protecting privacy and security. What makes it possible.