JP2007019622A - Electronic document image forming apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a document from not being guaranteed by restraining an electronic document image imparted with an electronic certificate whose term of validity has expired etc., from being formed. <P>SOLUTION: When a user sets a paper document with an electronic signature to a scanner, an apparatus control section 101 requests the user to be authenticated (201, 202). The user after inputting a password to be authenticated and acquiring the right for use presents a certificate (203, 204). The apparatus control section 101 checks the term of validity of the presented certificate on the basis of the timer information of a timer information section 103 (205). The apparatus control section 101 once confirming that the term of validity of the certificate is valid with respect to electronic document creation informs the user of that, and instructs an image formation section 104 to create the electronization of the document and impart the electronic signature to the created electronic document (206 to 208). The apparatus control section 101 stores the created electronic document with the electronic signature in a data storage section 105 and informs the user that the electronic document has been created and stored(209, 210). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic document image forming apparatus and method, and more particularly to an electronic document image forming apparatus for providing an electronic signature and an electronic time stamp for verifying the authenticity of an electronic document image when the electronic document image is formed, and Regarding the method.

  In recent years, in offices and the like, documents are stored as electronic data using electronic document image forming apparatuses such as scanners instead of paper documents, reducing the cost of storing paper documents, and improving availability through conversion to electronic data. It is illustrated. In response to the decline in the price of electronic data storage devices and the general enforcement of the “e-Document Law”, electronic preservation of official documents has become legally accepted. It is expected to accelerate further.

  A problem in storing document / image data using such electronic data is the authenticity of the electronic data. Electronic data can be easily tampered. In particular, in the case of an official document, it is important to confirm the authenticity of “when”, “who” the data was created, and “who” was approved.

  As conventional techniques for assuring the authenticity of electronic data, techniques of “electronic signature” and “electronic time stamp” are known. Both of these conventional technologies apply PKI (Public Key Cryptography), and the data that is the target or the hash created using a secret key based on the data and time is used as the electronic stamp. And tampering is detected by examining the hash using the public key during data verification. In order to use this technology, it is necessary to manage the issuance of an electronic certificate that certifies the private key / public key pair and the owner of the key, which is the foundation of PKI reliability.

As a conventional technique related to electronic document generation in which an electronic certificate is assigned to an electronic document and the electronic document is stored, a technique described in, for example, Patent Document 1 is known.
JP 2003-296742 A

  However, in general, an electronic certificate has an expiration date, and verification with an expired certificate is not reliable, and it is possible to renew a certificate or create a new certificate. is necessary. This is also true when generating an electronic document image. In fact, when an electronic document data that is stored and managed for a certain period of time is signed in an official document or the like, it expires or is valid. Using a key pair that is certified by a certificate that has just expired is likely to cause problems during verification in the next step.

  The object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, in the system for providing an electronic signature and an electronic time stamp for proving the authenticity of an electronic document image at the time of formation of the electronic document, Alternatively, electronic document image formation that prevents the formation of an electronic document image with an electronic signature with an electronic certificate that is about to expire and prevents the document from being guaranteed when the electronic document image needs to be verified It is to provide an apparatus and method.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first means of the present invention is an electronic document image forming apparatus for providing an electronic signature and an electronic time stamp for proving authenticity when an electronic document image is formed. There is a problem with the means for inspecting the expiration date of an electronic certificate including public key information obtained via a network or stored in an external device such as an IC card, and the expiration date of the electronic certificate. And a means for warning the user of the occurrence of the occurrence of the certificate and prompting the extension of the expiration date and the issuance of a new certificate.

  According to a second means of the present invention, in the first means, when there is a problem with the expiration date of the electronic certificate, the formation of an electronic document image is prohibited.

  The third means of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first or second means, a criterion for judging that there is a problem in the validity period of the electronic certificate is set in the apparatus in advance. To do. According to a fourth means of the present invention, in the first, second or third means, an expiration date which is considered to have a problem with the expiration date of the electronic certificate is expired or the remaining of the expiration date is left. The period is less than a predetermined remaining period.

  Further, according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the electronic document image forming method for providing an electronic signature and an electronic time stamp for verifying the authenticity at the time of forming the electronic document image, the apparatus at the time of forming the electronic document image Check the expiration date of an electronic certificate that is stored in itself, acquired via a network, or that includes public key information stored in an external device such as an IC card. When there is a problem, a warning is given to the user, and the expiration date is extended and a new certificate is issued.

  According to the present invention, the validity of a certificate can be confirmed without the user being aware of it normally, and the creation of an electronic document image with an expired signature can be suppressed.

  Embodiments of an electronic document image forming apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an electronic document image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sequence chart for explaining operations when creating an electronic document in the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 101 is an apparatus control unit, 102 is an IC card reader, 103 is a clock information unit, 104 is an image forming unit, 105 is a data storage unit, and 106 is an operation panel.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an electronic document image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a device control unit 101 that has a CPU, an internal memory, and the like and controls the entire device, and an IC that stores an electronic certificate and the like. An IC card reader 102 that reads the contents of the card, a clock information unit 103 that manages time information, a scanner that reads the contents of the original document such as paper, and an image forming unit 104 that uses the read document information as electronic data, A data storage unit 105 capable of storing a large amount of information, such as a hard disk device for storing an electronic document image that is created electronic data, and an operation panel 106 used by a user to operate the electronic document image forming apparatus. And is configured. As described above, the image forming unit 104 also includes a print mechanism that prints the electronic document image stored in the data storage unit 105 on paper or the like.

  Next, with reference to a sequence chart shown in FIG. 2, a normal operation at the time of document creation in the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(1) When the user sets a paper document for which an electronic document image with an electronic signature is to be created is set in the scanner of the image forming unit 104, the apparatus control unit 101 detects the setting of the original and displays it on the display unit of the operation panel 106. A request for user authentication is made (sequences 201 and 202).

(2) The user presents or designates a certificate after receiving user authentication and acquiring the right to use the apparatus by inputting a password from the operation panel 106 or the like. The certificate may be specified in advance in the apparatus, for example, in a non-volatile memory in the apparatus control unit 101, or the certificate stored in an external device such as an IC card is sent from the IC card reader 102. It may be read and input. In addition, if secure communication is possible, it is also possible to obtain from a server on the network (sequences 203 and 204).

(3) The device control unit 101 checks the expiration date of the presented certificate based on the clock information in the clock information unit 103. As the clock information to be used, a real-time clock in the internal clock information unit 103 may be used, or external reliable clock information such as an NTP server on the network may be used (sequence 205).

(4) If the apparatus control unit 101 confirms that there is no problem in the creation of the electronic document created by the certificate expiration date, it notifies the user of that (sequence 206).

(5) When the user instructs creation of an electronic document image, the apparatus control unit 101 instructs the image forming unit 104 to make the document an electronic document, and adds a signature to the created electronic document (sequence 207, 208).

(6) The apparatus control unit 101 accumulates the electronic document with the signature created by the image forming unit 104 in the data accumulation unit 105, and then notifies the user that the electronic document has been created and accumulated ( Sequence 209, 210).

  In the foregoing, a more reliable electronic time stamp service provider service can be used to attach accurate clock information to the signature. The electronic document can be stored in the data storage unit 105 in the electronic document image forming apparatus as described above, or can be transmitted and stored in an external server or the like via a network.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration example according to another embodiment of the present invention for signing an electronic document image using an electronic certificate and key information in an IC card. 3, 301 is an electronic document image forming apparatus, 302 is a user authentication server, 303 is an IC card, 304 is a network, and other reference numerals are the same as those in FIG.

  The system according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 is an example of a system in which key information and a certificate are passed to an electronic document image forming apparatus using an IC card, and is described with reference to FIG. The electronic document image forming apparatus 301 and the user authentication server 302 having basically the same configuration as that of the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 are connected to each other through the network 304, and the IC card reader 102 is connected to the electronic document image forming apparatus 301. . The IC card 303 possessed by the user stores a PIN that is a personal identification number, a user ID, a password, an electronic certificate, and key information as data contents. In addition, the user authentication server 302 holds a table in which information on a large number of users including user IDs and their passwords is stored. This table can also store the number of electronic documents as billing information for electronic documents created by the user.

  Next, the flow of processing in the system according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

  A user who wants to create an electronic document image to which an electronic signature is attached first attaches the IC card 303 possessed by the user to the IC card reader 102. When the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 detects that the IC card 303 is attached to the IC card reader 102, the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 displays a request for inputting the PIN to the user. When the user inputs a PIN, the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 notifies the IC card 303 of the input PIN information via the IC card reader 102. The IC card 303 compares the PIN information in the IC card 303 with the notified PIN information, and if a match is obtained, the user ID and password information in the IC card 303 are electronically transmitted via the IC card reader 102. It is transmitted to the document image forming apparatus 301.

  The electronic document image forming apparatus 301 transmits the user ID and password sent from the IC card 303 to the user authentication server 302 via the network 304 and requests authentication. The user authentication server 302 checks the user information in its own server and returns the authentication result to the electronic document image forming apparatus 301. If the authentication result from the user authentication server 302 is OK, the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 can use the apparatus for creating an electronic document image with an electronic signature and notifies the user to that effect. To do.

  Upon receiving this notification, the user sets a paper document for which an electronic document image with an electronic signature is to be created on the scanner, sets scan conditions and the like, and executes scanning. The electronic document image forming apparatus 301 generates an electronic document image obtained by adding the electronic certificate obtained from the IC card 303 to the scanned data, and stores the electronic document image in the data storage unit 105. The operation of generating the electronic document image here is performed in the same manner as the sequences 205 to 210 described with reference to FIG.

  Thereafter, the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 transmits the number of created electronic document images to the user authentication server 302 as billing information, stores it in the table of the user authentication server 302, and allows the user from the IC card reader 102 to the IC card. The user logs out 303 and disables use of the electronic document image forming apparatus 301 for generating an electronic document image with an electronic signature.

  In the above description, the number of electronic document images stored in the table of the user authentication server 302 is accumulated for each user and used for billing at a later date. The electronic document image forming apparatus 301 may be configured in the same manner as that shown in FIG. 1, or may be configured in a multi-function peripheral having a plurality of functions such as a scanner, a copy, a printer, and a fax machine.

  FIG. 4 is a sequence chart for explaining processing in which the administrator sets a policy for the validity period of a certificate in the electronic document image forming apparatus 301, and a sequence for explaining processing when the validity period is NG in the operation for creating the electronic document. First, a description will be given of a process in which an administrator sets a policy for a certificate expiration date. It is assumed that the electronic document image forming apparatus in the example described here has the same configuration as that described with reference to FIG.

(1) The device administrator logs in to the electronic document image forming apparatus. This login may be to attach an IC card held by the administrator to the IC card reader (sequence 401).

(2) The apparatus control unit of the electronic document image forming apparatus requests the user who is logging in, here the administrator, to input authentication information by detecting the insertion of the IC card into the IC card reader (sequence 402). .

(3) When the administrator inputs authentication information from the operation panel, the apparatus control unit confirms this, and if the authentication is OK, login by the administrator is completed (sequence 403).

(4) The administrator then sets a policy for the certificate expiration date by using a tool such as an operation panel or a Web browser via a network. Details of the policy to be set will be described later (sequence 404).

  Next, with reference to the latter part of the sequence chart shown in FIG. 4, a process when the validity period of the certificate is NG in the operation when creating the electronic document by the user will be described.

(1) When the user sets a paper document for which an electronic document image with an electronic signature is to be created is set in the scanner of the image forming unit 104, the apparatus control unit 101 detects the setting of the original and displays it on the display unit of the operation panel 106. A request for user authentication is made (sequences 411 and 412).

(2) The user presents or designates a certificate after receiving user authentication and acquiring the right to use the apparatus by inputting a password from the operation panel 106 or the like. The certificate may be specified in advance in the apparatus, for example, in a non-volatile memory in the apparatus control unit 101, or the certificate stored in an external device such as an IC card is sent from the IC card reader 102. It may be read and input. In addition, if secure communication is possible, it is also possible to obtain from a server on the network (sequences 413 and 414).

(3) The device control unit 101 checks the expiration date of the presented certificate based on the clock information in the clock information unit 103. As the clock information to be used, a real-time clock in the internal clock information unit 103 may be used, or external reliable clock information such as an NTP server on the network may be used (sequence 415).

(4) In this description, since the validity period of the certificate is NG, the device control unit 101 notifies the user that the electronic document cannot be created according to the check result, and performs processing. The process ends (sequence 416).

  FIG. 5 is a view showing a display example on the operation panel 106 for notifying that the validity period of the certificate is NG.

  The certificate expiration date check described above is performed according to the certificate expiration policy set by the administrator, and the electronic document image forming apparatus generates an electronic document image using the device. Check whether the expiration date of the electronic certificate meets the policy, tell the user that the electronic document image cannot be created if there is a problem, and extend the expiration date or Encourage publication. The notification to the user can be performed by displaying on the operation panel 106 as in the example shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 5A, “Certificate validity verification error has occurred” and “Certificate status: out of validity period” are displayed. This notification to the user can be performed by E-mail instead of being displayed on the operation panel 106. In addition, the administrator can check the history of errors using a Web browser. A display example of history confirmation and the like is shown in FIG. 5B, and the administrator can confirm the history of the user usage time, the certificate validity verification result, and the like.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a policy to be set, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a setting screen. Next, these will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the policy set by the administrator is composed of setting item 1, setting item 2 and purpose. As setting item 1, “validity period check” for designating whether or not to check the validity period. As the policy of setting item 1, “policy title” of setting item 2 indicating the title of each setting policy, and “policy title” of setting item 2 that specifies not to accept a signature with a certificate key that does not satisfy the required validity period. There is “minimum required expiration date” and “image creation permission” of setting item 2 for designating whether or not scanning is permitted when a certificate having a problem with the expiration date is presented. Also, as a warning notification method of setting item 1, “notification method” of setting item 2 for designating notification by panel or e-mail, and “notification method” of setting item 2 for designating certificate authority information (address etc.) for issuing a certificate. "CA station information", and further, as setting item 1, "certificate acquisition method" for designating IC card, inside of device, via network, "certificate creation" for designating creation of certificate inside device, There is "Certificate Import" that specifies that an externally created certificate is imported into the device.

  The policy setting as described above is performed by the administrator by the processing described in the sequences 401 to 404 shown in FIG. 4. When the administrator logs in to the electronic document image forming apparatus, the operation panel 106 displays A setting screen as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed, and the administrator can use this display screen to set detailed information regarding the policy as described above. The setting of the expiration date check is not only performed as shown in FIG. 7 but also whether or not the processing is permitted when the remaining period of the expiration date is reduced. It can also be set. Further, setting of detailed information related to the policy can be performed using a tool such as a Web browser via a network, instead of using the operation panel 106.

  By making the detailed settings as described above, it is possible to apply a validity check rule suitable for the purpose of the document to be digitized. Also, by making the settings as described above, not only warning of certificate expiration, but also the creation of electronic document images with all electronic signatures is prohibited in the case of important electronic document image creation. be able to. Thus, it is possible to prevent a signed document from being created with a key pair of a certificate that has expired or is about to expire, and to prevent rework during verification in the next step.

  The above-described processing by the sequence of the electronic document image forming apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention is configured by a program and can be executed by a CPU provided in the apparatus. These programs are FD, CDROM, DVD, and the like. It can be provided by being stored in a recording medium, and can be provided as digital information via a network.

  According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the validity of the certificate is checked, and when there is a problem, the user is notified of the problem. Confirmation can be performed, and creation of an electronic document image with an expired signature can be suppressed.

  In addition, by setting detailed policies for checking the expiration date, it is possible to flexibly change the check criteria for signing important documents and documents that are not. In addition, by not generating any image with a certificate key that has a problem with the expiration date, it is possible to prevent the creation of a document that becomes an invalid and invalid document during signature verification in the next process. Rework can be prevented.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an electronic document image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a sequence chart explaining operation at the time of electronic document creation in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the example of a system configuration | structure by other embodiment of this invention which signs an electronic document image using the electronic certificate and key information in an IC card. 5 is a sequence chart for explaining processing for an administrator to set a policy for a certificate expiration date in the electronic document image forming apparatus, and a sequence chart for explaining processing when an expiration date is NG in an operation for creating an electronic document. It is a figure which shows the example of a display on the operation panel 106 which notifies that the expiration date of a certificate is NG. It is a figure explaining the example of the policy to set. It is a figure explaining the example of a setting screen.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Device control part 102 IC card reader 103 Clock information part 104 Image forming part 105 Data storage part 106 Operation panel 301 Electronic document image forming apparatus 302 User authentication server 303 IC card 304 Network

Claims (5)

  In the electronic document image forming apparatus that gives an electronic signature and electronic time stamp to prove its authenticity when forming an electronic document image, it is stored in the apparatus itself, acquired via a network, or an IC card or the like Means for inspecting the expiration date of an electronic certificate including public key information stored in an external device, etc., and warns the user when there is a problem with the expiration date of the electronic certificate. An electronic document image forming apparatus comprising: means for prompting an extension of an expiration date and issuing a new certificate.   The electronic document image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electronic document image formation is prohibited when there is a problem with the validity period of the electronic certificate.   3. The electronic document image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a criterion for determining that there is a problem with the expiration date of the electronic certificate is set in the apparatus in advance.   The validity period that is considered to have a problem with the validity period of the electronic certificate is expired or when the remaining period of the validity period is less than a predetermined remaining period. 3. The electronic document image forming apparatus according to 3.   In an electronic document image forming method for providing an electronic signature and electronic time stamp for proving its authenticity when an electronic document image is formed, the electronic document image is acquired via the network stored in the apparatus itself when the electronic document image is formed. Or, when the expiration date of the electronic certificate including the public key information stored in an external device such as an IC card is checked and there is a problem with the expiration date of the electronic certificate, A method of forming an electronic document image, which warns the user and prompts extension of an expiration date and issuance of a new certificate.

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