JP2006205374A - Printing device and information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing device and an information processing device which prevents a doubtful act on a printing job which keeps a password. <P>SOLUTION: When one fails to input a password a fixed number of times, the printing device notifies a predetermined addressee of a notice and erases a printing job if an error is made further a fixed number of times. The device monitors the connection status to a network and stops the execution of the printing job when connection fails. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that requires a password input at the time of printing, and relates to a printing apparatus and an information processing apparatus that notify an administrator or the like when a user tries to print data illegally.

As a conventional technique, as a mechanism for reporting an illegal act, a mechanism for reporting when an illegal image is to be copied is defined as disclosed in Patent Document 1. The present invention detects the hacking operation or the like instead of looking at the contents of the printed matter in order to detect an illegal act.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-232707

  There is a function called secure printing in which printing is not executed unless a password is entered at the printer. This is for the purpose of allowing only the principal to receive the printed matter because the principal who intends to print sets a password. Alternatively, as another form, a password may be set for the document itself. In this case, only the person who set the password of the document or the user who is informed of the password can view and print the document.

  However, although a password is applied, it is a reality that other people can try to print at an opportunity. In particular, if you forget to pick up after submitting a print job, there is even more danger. The present invention aims to prevent that danger.

  The present invention is intended to prevent a user who does not know other passwords from attempting to print such data from attempting to input the passwords maliciously and printing confidential data.

  In the present invention, when printing print data with a password set, in order to prevent the danger, a password input error is detected, and when the input error exceeds a predetermined number, a preset administrator's The fact is reported. If the user still tries to input the password despite the notification and continues to make a mistake, the print data will be deleted if the mistake exceeds a predetermined number of times. To do. If network communication is interrupted to prevent notification, printing is stopped.

  That is, the present invention is a printing apparatus that requires input of a password at the time of printing, and includes a data holding unit that holds print data, a first storage unit that stores a notification method, and a detection that detects an input error of a password. And a reporting device for reporting when an input error is detected by a method according to the contents of the storage unit.

  According to the present invention, when printing print data with a password set, an incorrect input of the password is detected, and when the input error exceeds a predetermined number of times, the fact is notified based on a preset notification destination. By reporting, the risk of a suspicious user attempting to print a print job with a password is prevented. If the suspicious user still tries to input the password despite the notification, and continues to make a mistake, the print data is deleted if the mistake exceeds the predetermined number of times. . If network communication is interrupted to prevent notification, printing is stopped.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system to which a secure printer according to an embodiment of the present invention belongs. In the figure, the secure printer is depicted as 102. The secure printer 102 is connected to the client PC 101, and the client PC 101 can send a print job with a password to the secure printer 102. Here, the “print job with password” means that the user 104 needs to input the password to the secure printer 102 in order for the secure printer 102 to actually start printing. The secure printer 102 is also connected to the mail server 103 so that mail can be sent. Various forms of connection methods between the client PC 101 and the secure printer 102 and between the secure printer 102 and the mail server 103 are possible. Specific examples include Ethernet, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and PHS.

  Here, a basic procedure until a print job with a password is printed will be described.

  A print job is sent from the client PC 102 to the secure printer 102 by a predetermined method, and a dialog box as shown in FIG. Here, the user inputs a password to be set for the print job using a keyboard provided in the client PC. When a print job is sent to the secure printer 102, the print job is queued for the print job in the secure printer.

  The secure printer 102 has a user interface as shown in FIG. About 10 keys are arranged around the center and are keys KEY for inputting numbers. On the right side are a start button SB and a cancel button CB. On the left side, a touch panel liquid crystal LCD is attached.

  In a normal state, a screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the touch panel liquid crystal LCD. Three buttons are arranged on the liquid crystal screen, and when the button SPB written as “Secure Print Operation” is pressed, the screen is switched to the screen 5 for secure printing.

  Screen for Secure Print In FIG. 5, a list SJL of print jobs with passwords sent to the touch panel liquid crystal LCD is displayed. In the example of FIG. 5, the past three print jobs are lined up. It is the name of the transmission source client PC and the date and time of transmission. The user touches the part of the job to be printed from the print job list SJL and presses the start button SB. Then, if transition is permitted, a screen diagram 6 for requesting password input is displayed. The case where the transition is not permitted will be described later.

  When the password input screen shown in FIG. 6 is displayed, the user inputs a password using the key KEY. An asterisk (*) corresponding to the number of characters is displayed in the character editing area TF on the touch panel LCD according to the number of characters input. When it is necessary to input characters other than numbers, touching the part of the character editing area TF displays a keyboard as shown in FIG. 7, so that any character can be input by selecting the necessary character there. . After entering the password, the user presses the start button SB. If the input password is correct, the print job selected in the secure print screen FIG. 5 is printed.

  Next, a physical configuration diagram of the secure printer of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The CPU is a central processing unit, and executes a program in which a control method described in this embodiment is implemented. The MEM is a memory (storage device) in which the contents of the program are stored and also plays a role of temporarily storing the calculation results of the program. The UI is a user interface (operation panel) used by the user to operate the apparatus. The UIC is a controller for controlling the user interface UI. The NIC network board is a device for communication between devices. The HDD is a hard disk drive, and holds programs and print job data stored in the memory MEM as permanent storage. The HDC is a hard disk controller and controls the hard disk drive HDD. The BUS connects the central processing unit CPU, the memory MEM, the user interface controller UIC, the network board NIC, and the hard disk controller HDC, and is a bus necessary for information exchange between these components.

  When the button CFB written “Printer setting” in FIG. 4 is pressed, a screen as shown in FIG. 9 appears. When a button SEND written as “Mail transmission setting” is pressed here, a screen as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed. Although the mail transmission setting is performed on the screen of FIG. 10, a virtual keyboard as shown in FIG. 7 appears by pressing the character editing area STF of the SMTP server, and the name or IP address of the server to which the mail is transmitted can be set. Also, by pressing the From information character editing area FTF, the information of the From header added to the header area of the mail to be transmitted can be set. These pieces of information are stored in predetermined areas of the hard disk drive HDD and the memory MEM in FIG.

  When the button RECV written “Mail reception setting” is pressed on the screen of FIG. 9, the screen depicted in FIG. 11 is displayed. Here, the name or IP address of the mail server 103 and the user name and password of the POP3 account can be set by inputting them into three character editing areas of UTF, PTF, and 3TF, respectively. How many minutes the mail connection is attempted is set in the POL character editing area. Also, the RTMO character editing area sets how many minutes to wait for the mail that should arrive. These pieces of information are also stored in predetermined areas of the hard disk drive HDD and the memory MEM in FIG.

  FIG. 12 is a screen displayed when the button “SECR” written as “security setting” in FIG. 9 is pressed. This screen should not be displayed unless the password is entered, but the method is well known and will not be described here. In the screen of FIG. 12, how many times the password is mistaken is reported in the FAIL character editing area. Also, in the character editing area of DELETE, how many times the password is wrong is deleted from the queue. PJOB is a toggle button, and each time it is pressed, the number of password failures is counted for each job or is switched as a whole. In addition, the number of password failures to remember is set in the FTMO character editing area. These pieces of information are also stored in predetermined areas of the hard disk drive HDD and the memory MEM in FIG.

  FIG. 13 shows the password failure history held in the memory MEM by the secure printer 102 in a tabular format. Each frame records the date and time when password entry failed in the past. In each of the second and lower levels, a failure history for each job that the secure printer 102 holds in the print job queue is held. The top row is a record of password entry failures recorded across all jobs. The history for each job in the second and lower stages is deleted when the job is printed or deleted, but the uppermost history remains until it is overwritten. The number of columns in this table needs to be secured more than the number set in the character editing areas FAIL and DELT in FIG.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a program executed by the central processing unit CPU when inputting a password on the screen of FIG. When the screen of FIG. 6 is displayed, the process is repeated in steps S001 and S002 until the password is input and the start button SB is pressed. Next, in step S003, the password of the print job selected on the screen of FIG. 5 and the password input on the screen of FIG. 6 are collated. If they match, the selected print job is printed in step S004. Is done. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S003 that the password is incorrect, the current time is recorded in the history shown in the table of FIG. 13 in step S005. At this time, the frames that are vacant in the stage corresponding to the selected print job or the frame with the oldest time and the frames with the oldest time or the oldest time are overwritten. Next, in step S008, it is checked whether a report is necessary. Here, it is first checked whether or not failures are recorded for the number of times set in FAIL in FIG. 12 within the time set in FTMO in FIG. If the predetermined number has been exceeded, a notification is made in step S007. Step S005 may be arranged after this condition determination, but in that case, it is necessary to adjust the number of times of confirmation. In step S008, it is checked whether the print job needs to be deleted. Here, as in the case of reporting, the past history is examined in relation to the value set in DELT in FIG. 12. However, when the switch for each job is valid in PJOB in FIG. 12, FIG. The level corresponding to the selected print job in the second level or lower is checked. Conversely, when the switch PJOB for each job is invalid, the history at the top is checked. If it is determined that deletion is necessary, the print job is deleted in step S009. At this time, if the switch PJOB for each job is valid, only the selected print job is deleted. However, if the switch PJOB for each job is invalid, the print job is queued. All print jobs that have been deleted will be deleted.

  Although notification of suspicious behavior is one of the objects of the present invention, there is a possibility that the notification may be interrupted by disconnecting the network cable. In addition, there is a possibility that there is a person who steals the secure printer itself and tries to print a print job with a password. In order to prevent this, in the present embodiment, the secure printer 102 periodically transmits mail and confirms reception. The interval for sending the mail is set in the character editing area POL in FIG. The transmission destination is an address set in the character editing area UTF in FIG. When the time set in the character editing area RTMO in FIG. 11 elapses after the mail is sent, this time, the POP3 server set in the character editing area 3TF in FIG. At this time, if the mail exists on the server, the mail is deleted from the server. On the contrary, if there is no mail, it is written in the memory MEM that the print job with the password cannot be printed until the next mail is confirmed. If it is not possible, even if the start button SB is pressed on the screen of FIG.

System configuration diagram of this embodiment Figure showing the password setting dialog box Figure showing the user interface Diagram showing normal screen Figure showing a list of print jobs with passwords Figure showing the password input screen Figure showing a virtual keyboard System Configuration Figure showing the printer setting screen Figure showing the mail transmission setting screen Figure showing the mail reception setting screen Figure showing the security settings screen Figure showing password failure history Flow chart when entering password

Explanation of symbols

101 Client PC
102 Secure Printer 103 Mail Server 104 Suspicious LCD Touch Panel Liquid Crystal Key SB Key for Numeric Input SB Start Button CB Cancel Button HDD Hard Disk Drive HDC Hard Disk Controller NIC Network Controller UI User Interface UIC User Interface Controller MEM Memory CPU Central Processing Unit BUS Communication Bus

Claims (10)

A printing device that prompts for a password when printing,
Data holding means for holding print data;
First storage means for storing a notification method;
A detection means for detecting an incorrect password input;
A printing apparatus comprising: reporting means for reporting by a method according to the contents of the storage means when an input error is detected. The printing apparatus according to claim 1,
A recording means for recording a password input error;
A writing means for recording the fact that there was an error in the recording means when an input error is detected,
A printing apparatus comprising: The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
A second storage means for storing the number of times;
The notifying means operates when the number of input mistakes exceeds the number of times stored in the second storage means. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A third storage means for storing the number of times;
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the number of input errors exceeds the number of times stored in the third storage unit, at least a part of the information in the data holding unit is deleted. A printing device that prompts for a password when printing,
Data holding means for holding print data;
A detection means for detecting an incorrect password input;
A printing apparatus comprising: a reporting unit that deletes at least a part of information in the data holding unit when an input error is detected. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
A fourth storage means for storing the number of times;
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the number of input mistakes exceeds the number of times stored in the fourth storage unit, at least part of the information in the data holding unit is deleted. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Including sending emails or sending messages or faxing or calling or a combination
Characteristic printing device. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
A connection detection means capable of detecting whether communication is possible, and
If communication is not possible, stop means for stopping data printing,
A printing apparatus comprising: An information processing apparatus connected to a mail server,
A means of sending periodic emails to a specific account,
Receiving means for periodically receiving e-mail from the account;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
A connection detection means that can detect whether it can connect to the mail server;
If not connected, stop means to stop printing data,
A printing apparatus comprising: