JP2007128216A - Virtual printer driver for controlling print authority - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a virtual printer driver easy to mount while preventing information leak by surely applying a countermeasure technique to information leak to a printed matter on which information processed by a computer is printed by a printer. <P>SOLUTION: A printer driver 30 introduced to the computer 2 is set so that a printing user P has print authority in the printer driver 30. The virtual printer driver 20 is set so that a user A who will perform printing has print authority in the virtual printer driver 20. According to this, it is possible to set the printer driver so that only when the user A who will perform printing performs printing by a printer 3 via the virtual printer driver 20, the user can use the printer driver 30 using the authority of the printing user P set to the virtual printer driver 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a virtual printer driver that controls printing authority.

  In recent years, it has become common to process important information with a computer. Accordingly, there is an increasing need to prevent information processed by a computer from leaking. In addition, since April 2005, the Personal Information Protection Law has been enacted, and the need for measures to prevent information leakage in computers has further increased.

  As a main information leakage route of information processed by a computer, it is conceivable that information is printed by a printer and leaked through the printed matter. As a countermeasure technique for preventing such information leakage via a printed material, there is a method of embedding user information printed using the watermark technology described in Patent Document 1 as an invisible watermark in the printed material. In addition, there are a method of embedding printed user information and the like as a visible watermark in the background, header, or footer of the printed material, a method of saving a reduced image of the printed content as a record, and the like.

When implementing the information leakage countermeasure technology as described above, it can be implemented using one of the following three methods.
(1) Incorporate information leakage countermeasure technology into the printer or printer driver.
(2) Incorporate information leakage countermeasure technology into applications that execute printing.
(3) A virtual printer driver capable of relaying print data from an application to a printer driver as described in Patent Document 2 is provided, and information leakage countermeasure technology is incorporated into the virtual printer driver. Printing is performed via this virtual printer driver.

  However, in the mounting methods (1) and (2), it is necessary to directly process a printer, a printer driver, or an application in order to incorporate information leakage countermeasure technology. Therefore, when a printing environment using a printer, a printer driver, and an application has already been established, it is difficult to implement later. Furthermore, it is difficult to cope with a case where a printer, printer driver, or application in which information leakage countermeasure technology is already mounted is replaced with another printer, printer driver, or application.

  In the mounting method (3), if print data from an application is directly sent to the printer driver during printing, a printed matter to which the countermeasure technique implemented in the virtual printer driver is not applied is printed. Therefore, it is not a countermeasure against information leakage. A conventional printing system 1 in which the mounting method (3) is used will be specifically described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a conventional printing system 1 in which the mounting method (3) is used. In the conventional printing system 1, for example, when the user A prints the information of the application 10 executed on the computer 2 through the terminal X, first, the user authority data “a” of the user A is sent from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver 20. Entered.

  In the virtual printer driver 20, the print authority determining unit 21 refers to the print authority information set in the print authority information database 23, and the user A determines the print authority in the virtual printer driver 20 based on the input user authority data a. It is determined whether or not it has. If it is determined that the user A has print authority, the input of print data d from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 is permitted. As a result, the print data d is input to the virtual printer driver control unit 22, and the virtual printer driver control unit 22 asks the operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) of the computer 2 based on the management ID of the print data d. The source information such as information of the user A who is the printer is acquired. The virtual printer driver control unit 22 inserts the acquired origin information into the print data d as the watermark information w, and generates the watermarked print data D.

  Next, the user authority data “a” of the user A is input from the printing authority determining unit 21 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printing authority determining unit 31 of the printer driver 30. The printing authority determination unit 31 of the printer driver 30 refers to the printing authority information set in the printing authority information database 33, and whether or not the user A has the printing authority in the printer driver 30 based on the input user authority data a. Determine whether.

  When it is determined that the user A has the print authority in the printer driver 30, the watermarked print data D is permitted to be input from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32. As a result, the watermarked print data D is input from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 to the printer driver control unit 32. The printer driver control unit 32 processes the input watermarked print data D so that it can be printed by the printer 3, and outputs it to the printer 3 via the printer port driver 40. The printer 3 prints the input watermarked print data D.

JP 2003-101762 A JP 2004-005687 A

  As described above, in the conventional printing system 1, the user authority data a input from the application 10 to the printing authority determination unit 21 of the virtual printer 20 is directly sent from the virtual printer driver 20 to the printing authority determination unit 31 of the printer driver 30. Since it is configured to be input, the setting of the printing authority in the printer driver 30 and the setting of the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20 are the same. Therefore, in the conventional printing system 1, the user A who has the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20 also has the printing authority in the printer driver 30, so that the user A prints the information processed by the application 10. , It is now possible to directly select and print the printer driver 30 instead of the virtual printer driver 20. In printing in which the printer driver 30 is directly selected, the user authority data a and print data d of the user A bypass the virtual printer driver 20 as shown by the broken line in FIG. Embedding watermark printing to prevent the occurrence of the problem is avoided. If the print authority setting in the printer driver 30 and the print authority setting in the virtual printer driver 20 are set differently, the user A is also prohibited from printing with the printer driver 30 via the virtual printer driver 20. .

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when information processed by a computer is printed by a printer, the information leakage countermeasure technology is surely applied to the printed matter to be printed to prevent information leakage. An object of the present invention is to provide a virtual printer driver that can be easily implemented.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to the present invention, a printer driver for outputting only print data of a user having the first print authority to the printer among the input print data is installed in a computer. A virtual printer driver that controls the printing authority, and applies the information leakage countermeasure technology only to the print data of the user having the second printing authority among the input print data, and the information leakage countermeasure technology is applied The print authority is controlled by inputting only the print data that has been set to the printer driver as the print data of a predetermined user having the first print authority based on preset account information. A virtual printer driver is provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the print authority for printing information processed by the computer with the printer can be set separately for the printer driver and the virtual printer driver. It is possible to set so that only the print data input in this way is output from the printer driver to the printer. As a result, when the user performs printing, the print data always passes through the virtual printer driver, so that the information leakage countermeasure technology is applied to all printed materials without omission.

  In the virtual printer driver for controlling the print authority, the information leakage countermeasure technology adds predetermined information to the print data of the user having the second print authority as the data of the background, header or footer of the printed matter. May be.

  In the virtual printer driver that controls the print authority, the information leakage countermeasure technique may add predetermined information as visible data to print data of a user having the second print authority.

  In the virtual printer driver that controls the printing authority, the information leakage countermeasure technique may add predetermined information as invisible data to the printing data of the user having the second printing authority. .

  In the virtual printer driver for controlling the printing authority, the information leakage countermeasure technology is configured to send predetermined information including at least a part of print data of a user having the second printing authority to the computer or the computer via a network. It may be recorded in a separate connected computer.

  In the virtual printer driver that controls the printing authority, the predetermined information may include a computer name of the computer, a login name of a user who has input print data to the virtual printer driver, or a printing date and time.

  The present invention also provides an installation program for installing a virtual printer driver for controlling the printing authority in a computer, driver introduction means for introducing the virtual printer driver into the computer, and information on the printer driver as the virtual driver. The printer-related information setting means to be set in the printer driver and the user having the first print authority are different from the user having the second print authority. And a print authority information setting unit for setting the print authority.

  According to the present invention, the installation of the virtual printer driver is automatically performed by the installation program, so that the introduction of the virtual printer driver is accelerated. In addition, since installation is performed fully automatically, work errors are reduced, and a virtual printer driver can be installed with minimal knowledge.

  According to the present invention, when information processed by a computer is printed by a printer, the print data output from the application to the printer driver always passes through the virtual printer driver to which the information leakage countermeasure technology is applied. Therefore, it is possible to reliably apply information leakage countermeasure technology to all printed materials.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present specification and drawings, elements having substantially the same functional configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  A printing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the printing system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention in which a watermark technique for preventing information leakage is implemented by the mounting method (3) described above.

  The printing system 1 has a configuration in which a printer 3 and a terminal X are connected to a computer 2. For example, the user A can operate the application 10 executed on the computer 2 through the terminal X. The computer 2 may be equipped with, for example, Windows (registered trademark) as an operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS). As shown in FIG. 2, an application 10, a virtual printer driver 20, a printer driver 30, and a printer port driver 40 are installed in the computer 2.

  The application 10 may be a program or the like that can be executed on the computer 2 and that can create and edit a document, for example. When the application 10 is instructed by the user A to print information processed by the application 10, for example, the user authority data a of the user A and print data d of the information being processed are sent to the virtual printer driver 20. It is possible to output.

  Similar to the virtual printer driver 20 of the conventional printing system 1 described with reference to FIG. 1, the virtual printer driver 20 prints on the virtual printer driver 20 based on the user authority data a of the user A input from the application 10. A print authority determination unit 21 that can determine whether or not the user A who wants to input data d has print authority in the virtual printer driver 20, and watermark information w is embedded in the print data d input from the application 10, A virtual printer driver control unit 22 capable of generating the incoming print data D.

  Also, the virtual printer driver 20 is connected to the print authority determining unit 21 in the same manner as the virtual printer driver 20 of the conventional printing system 1 described with reference to FIG. A print authority information database 23 in which authority information is set and a print authority information database 33 connected to the print authority determination unit 31 and in which print authority information used for determining the print authority in the printer driver 30 is set.

  Further, when the virtual printer driver 20 inputs the watermarked print data D to the printer driver 30, the virtual printer driver 20 generates the printing authority data p for the printing user P, and the generated printing authority data p is sent to the printer driver 30. The print authority change unit 25 to be input, and the print account information connected to the print authority change unit 25 and pre-set with data necessary for generating the print authority data p such as the login name and password of the print user P And a database 26.

  The print authority determining unit 21 permits the input of the print data d from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22 when the user A who intends to input the print data d determines that the user has the print authority. The printing authority changing unit 25 is notified that A has the printing authority.

  The virtual printer driver control unit 22 receives and inputs the input print data d when the print authority determination unit 21 permits the input of the print data d from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22. The watermark data w is embedded in the print data d to generate the watermarked print data D, and the generated watermarked print data D is output to the printer driver 30 based on the information in the printer related information database 24 described later. Has been.

  The print authority information database 23 stores in advance print authority information that the user A who has the print authority in the virtual printer driver 20 as the second print authority has the print authority in the virtual printer driver 20.

  In the printer-related information database 24, printer-related information such as the printer 3, the printer driver 30, and the printer port driver 40 is set.

The printing account information database 26 stores in advance the login name and password of the printing user P who has printing authority in the printer driver 30 as the first printing authority. The login name and password as the account information of the printing user P can be set and modified only by the administrator of the computer 2 and cannot be referred to by an operator or the like.

  The print authority changing unit 25 is connected between the print authority determining unit 21 of the virtual printer driver 20 and the print authority determining unit 31 of the printer driver 30. The print authority changing unit 25 uses the login name and password of the printing user P stored in the printing account information database 26 together with the output of the watermarked print data D from the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32. The printing authority data p of the printing user P is created and output to the printer driver 30.

  When it is determined that the printing user P who intends to input the watermarked print data D has the printing authority, the printing authority determination unit 31 transfers from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32. The input of the watermarked print data D is permitted.

  The printer driver control unit 32, when the printing authority determination unit 31 permits the input of the watermarked print data D from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32 of the printer driver 30. The watermarked print data D is processed so that it can be printed by the printer 3 and output to the printer port driver 40.

  In the printing authority information database 33, printing authority information that the user A does not have the printing authority in the printer driver 30 and printing authority information that the printing user P has the printing authority in the printer driver 30 are preset. Yes.

  The printer port driver 40 is configured to access the printer 3 and input the watermarked print data D input from the printer driver control unit 32 of the printer driver 30 to the printer 3.

  The printer 3 can print the watermarked print data D input from the printer port driver 40 of the computer 2 on, for example, paper.

  In the printing system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above, a procedure for printing information processed by the user A using the application 10 will be described. When the user A instructs the application 10 to print the information being processed, the user authority data of the user A who has the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20 as the second printing authority from the application 10 a is input to the printing authority determination unit 21 of the virtual printer driver 20.

  The print authority determination unit 21 of the virtual printer driver 20 refers to the print authority information set in the print authority information database 23, and the user who intends to print the print data d based on the input user authority data a. It is determined whether A has print authority in the virtual printer driver 20. In the present embodiment, since the user A user ID data is set as ID data having print authority in the print authority information database 23, the user A user ID data included in the input user authority data a is When the user ID data matches the set user ID data, it is determined that the user A has the print authority in the virtual printer driver 20, and the print authority determination unit 21 sends the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22. Input of print data d is permitted. If the printing authority determination unit 21 determines that the user A does not have the printing authority, the input of the print data d from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22 is not permitted and the printed matter is not printed. The printing procedure ends.

  When it is determined that the user A has the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20, the print data d is input from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver control unit 22, and the user A has the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20. Is notified to the printing authority changing unit 25 of the virtual printer driver 20. The virtual printer driver control unit 22 makes an inquiry to the OS of the computer 2 based on the management ID information of the input print data d, for example, the computer name of the computer 2 that executes printing, and the user A who is the printer Get origin information such as login name or print date. The virtual printer driver control unit 22 inserts the acquired origin information into the print data d as the watermark information w, and generates the watermarked print data D.

  The printing authority changing unit 25 refers to the printing account information database 26 in response to the notification that the user A has the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20, and sets the login name of the printing user P set in advance. The user authority data p of the printing user P is acquired by acquiring the password and making an inquiry to the OS using the password. The print authority changing unit 25 inputs the acquired user authority data p of the printing user P to the print authority determining unit 31 of the printer driver 30.

  The printing authority determination unit 31 of the printer driver 30 refers to the printing authority information set in the printing authority information database 33 based on the input printing authority data p, and the printing user P determines the printing authority in the printer driver 30. It is determined whether or not it has. In the present embodiment, the printing ID data of the printing user P is preset as ID data having printing authority in the printing authority information database 33. Therefore, the printing ID data included in the input printing authority data p is used. When the printing ID data of the user P matches the printing ID data of the printing user P that has been set, it is determined that the printing user P has the printing authority in the printer driver, and the printing authority determination unit 31 Input of watermarked print data D from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32 of the printer driver 30 is permitted. If the printing authority determination unit 31 determines that the user P does not have the printing authority, a watermark is added from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32 of the printer driver 30. Input of the print data D is not permitted, and the printing procedure ends without printing the printed material.

  When it is determined that the printing user P has printing authority in the printer driver 30, the watermarked print data D is input from the virtual printer driver control unit 22 of the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver control unit 32. The printer driver control unit 32 processes the input watermarked print data D so that the printer 3 can print it, and outputs it to the printer port driver 40. The printer driver 40 accesses the printer 3 and outputs watermarked print data D to the printer 3. The printer 3 prints the input watermarked print data D.

  According to the above embodiment, when printing information processed by the user A by the user A, printing is performed separately from the user authority data a of the user A input from the application 10 to the virtual printer driver 20. Since the printing authority data p of the user P is input from the virtual printer driver 20 to the printer driver 30, the printing authority in the virtual printer driver 20 of the user A and the printing authority in the printer driver 30 of the user A are set differently. It becomes possible to. By controlling the printing authority in this way, when the information processed by the user A by the application is printed by the printer 3, printing via the virtual printer driver 20 is possible, but the virtual printer driver It is possible to set so that printing by bypassing the printer 20 and directly connecting to the printer driver 30 is impossible, and watermark information is surely embedded in the printed matter printed by the printer 3 to prevent information leakage. Can be applied.

  The printing system 1 having the above configuration can install and construct the virtual printer driver 20 in the computer 2 by executing the installation program 50 on the computer 2 as follows, for example. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of the installation program 50 for constructing the printing system 1.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the installation program 50 includes a driver introduction unit 51 that installs the virtual printer driver 20, a printer-related information setting unit 52 that sets printer-related information in the printer-related information database 24, and printing authority information. The printing authority information setting unit 53 is configured to set the above. The installation program 50 also includes a setting print authority information database 54 that is used when the print authority information setting unit 53 sets the print authority.

  A procedure for installing the virtual printer driver 20 in the computer 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure for installing the virtual printer driver 20 in the computer 2 by the installation program 50. First, when the installation program 50 is executed on the computer 2 in which the virtual printer driver 20 has not been installed, the installation is started (SP0). As shown by the dotted arrow 100 in FIG. 20 is installed in the computer 2 (SP1).

  After the virtual printer driver 20 is installed, the printer-related information setting means 52 of the installation program 50 detects the printer driver 30 that has already been installed in the computer 2 and detects it as indicated by the dotted arrow 101 in FIG. The information of the printer driver 30 is set in the printer related information database 24 of the virtual printer driver 20 (SP2).

  Next, the printing authority information setting unit 53 of the installation program 50 uses the printing authority information preset in the setting printing authority information database 54, as shown by the dotted arrow 102 in FIG. User ID data is set in the print authority information database 23 of the virtual printer driver 20 so as to have the print authority in the printer driver 20. Further, the print authority information setting means 53 is based on the print authority information preset in the setting print authority information database 54, and the printing user P uses the printer driver 30 in the printer driver 30 as indicated by the dotted arrow 103 in FIG. Printing ID data and user ID data are set in the printing authority information database 33 of the printer driver 30 so that the user A has the printing authority and the user A does not have the printing authority in the printer driver 30.

  Further, the print authority information setting means 53, based on the print authority information preset in the setting print authority information database 54, as shown by the dotted arrow 104 in FIG. The login name and password of the printing user P are set in the database 26 (SP3). Thereby, the installation by the installation program 50 is completed (SP4), and the printing system 1 of the present invention is constructed.

  According to the above embodiment, the installation from the virtual printer driver 20 to the setting of the printing authority can be automatically performed only by executing the installation program 50 on the computer 2, so that the installation of the virtual printer driver 20 is performed. The printed printing system 1 can be constructed at a very high speed. In addition, work errors when constructing the printing system 1 in which the virtual printer driver 20 is introduced are reduced. Furthermore, even an administrator who is not familiar with knowledge such as setting of printing authority can easily construct the printing system 1 in which the virtual printer driver 20 is introduced.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, this invention is not limited to the example which concerns. It is obvious for those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications can be conceived within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. It is understood that it belongs to.

  In the embodiment described above, the case of embedding a watermark in a printed material as a technology for preventing information leakage has been described. Or a part of the print data to be printed by the printer, together with information such as the printer information, is recorded on a computer on which the virtual printer driver is installed or a separate computer connected to the computer on which the virtual printer driver is installed on a network etc. Other methods, such as a method of doing so, may be used.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where only one user A prints is described. However, the present invention may be similarly applied to a plurality of users.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the authority of the user A and the printing user P is set based on the ID data such as the user ID data and the printing ID data has been described. Other data such as a login name may be used.

  In the embodiment described above, the case where the origin information is inserted into the print data d as the invisible watermark information w has been described. However, instead of the invisible watermark, the visible information w such as a watermark is used. May be inserted into the print data d.

  In the embodiment described above, the case where there is one printer driver 30 installed in the computer 2 has been described. However, when a plurality of printer drivers 30 are installed in the computer 2, each printer driver 30 is provided. One virtual printer driver 20 may be introduced for each.

  In the above-described embodiment, each information data is stored in a database such as the print authority information database 23, the print authority information database 33, the print account information database 26, the printer related information database 24, and the setting print authority information database 54. Although the case of storing has been described, each information data may be stored by other methods such as a simple information file format.

  The present invention is particularly useful for a printing system in which important printed matter that is highly necessary to prevent information leakage is printed, but is also useful for other printing systems.

1 is a configuration diagram of a conventional printing system 1 in which a watermark technology for preventing information leakage is implemented in a virtual printer driver. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention in which a watermark technology for preventing information leakage is implemented in a virtual printer driver. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an installation program 50 that constructs a printing system 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure for installing the virtual printer driver 20 in the computer 2 by the installation program 50.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing system 2 Computer 3 Printer 10 Application 20 Virtual printer driver 21 Printing authority determination part 22 Virtual printer driver control part 23 Printing authority restriction | limiting information database 24 Printer related information database 25 Printing authority change part 26 Printing account information database 30 Printer driver 31 Printing authority determination unit 32 Printer driver control unit 33 Printing authority information database 40 Printer port driver 50 Installation program 51 Driver introduction unit 52 Printer related information setting unit 53 Printing authority information setting unit 54 Setting printing authority information database A User D Watermark printing Data P Printing user X Terminal a User authority data d Print data p Printing authority data w Watermark information

Claims (7)

A virtual printer driver that is installed in a computer on which a printer driver that outputs only print data of a user having the first print authority to the printer among the input print data is installed and controls the print authority,
The information leakage countermeasure technology is applied only to the print data of the user having the second print authority among the input print data, and only the print data to which the information leakage countermeasure technology is applied is set in a preset account. A virtual printer driver for controlling printing authority, which is inputted to the printer driver as print data of a predetermined user having the first printing authority based on the information. The information leakage countermeasure technique is to add predetermined information as print background data, header data, or footer data to print data of a user having the second print authority. A virtual printer driver that controls the printing authority according to 1. 2. The print authority according to claim 1, wherein the information leakage countermeasure technique is to add predetermined information as visible data to print data of a user having the second print authority. Virtual printer driver to control. 2. The printing authority according to claim 1, wherein the information leakage countermeasure technique is to add predetermined information as invisible data to the printing data of the user having the second printing authority. Virtual printer driver to control. The information leakage countermeasure technique records predetermined information including at least a part of print data of a user having the second print authority on the computer or a separate computer connected to the computer via a network. The virtual printer driver for controlling printing authority according to claim 1, wherein: 6. The printing according to claim 2, wherein the predetermined information includes a computer name of the computer, a login name of a user who inputs print data to the virtual printer driver, or a printing date and time. A virtual printer driver that controls permissions. An installation program for installing in a computer a virtual printer driver that controls printing authority according to claim 1,
Driver introduction means for introducing the virtual printer driver into the computer;
Printer-related information setting means for setting the printer driver information in the virtual printer driver;
Print authority information setting means for setting the print authority of the printer driver and the print authority of the virtual printer driver so that the user having the first print authority is different from the user having the second print authority. The installation program characterized by having.

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