RU2165643C1 - Information authenticating method - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: information authenticating means; marking objects. SUBSTANCE: paper medium is used as object and entire alphanumeric information or its part, as check information. In addition, open electronic numeric-signature check key is converted into bar code which is also applied to paper medium and used for authenticating electronic numeric signature; if electronic numeric signature is authentic, bar-code check information is visually compared with alphanumeric information applied to paper medium and results of comparison are used to decide if alphanumeric information on paper medium is authentic or not. EFFECT: improved reliability of authenticating alphanumeric information; facilitated check procedure. 3 cl, 5 dwg

Description

 The invention relates to a method for marking and verification of objects and can find application in the protection of notarial, shipping, legal, executive documents and securities from fraud.

 There is a method of hidden marking of an object by applying an individual digital or alphanumeric tag to it containing information about the object, followed by reading this information and comparing it with the computer database or registering in a special journal (RF patent N 2107945, class G 06 K 9/00, G 09 F 3/10, publ. 1998).

 By the method of identification of registered products according to the patent of the Russian Federation N 2106689, cl. G 06 K 17/00, G 06 F 17/60, publ. 1998, during the manufacturing process, each product is physically marked, the product parameters and their individual numbers are stored in the database, and during verification they request information from the database and compare them with the product parameters and determine their legal status.

 The disadvantages of the above methods are the need to request information from a computer database or from a special registration log, as well as low protection against falsification.

 There is also a method of protecting securities from counterfeiting (US Pat. RF N 2088971, CL G 07 D 7/00, publ. 1997). The method includes applying a security code to a banknote by scanning the microstructure of the material of the banknote, determining the value of the identifier vector of the protected banknote, protecting it with an electronic digital signature, encoding and printing in a banknote.

 The disadvantage of this analogue is the difficulty of implementation, caused by the need for the issuer to openly publish a list of individual signs, an algorithm for generating an electronic digital signature (EDS), as well as an open key for verifying an EDS and using this information to identify a protected banknote.

 The closest analogue of the claimed invention is a method for identifying the authenticity of a controlled object described in the patent of the Russian Federation N 2132569 from 11/13/98, cl. G 06 K 9/00, G 07 D 7/00, which is selected for the prototype. In the known method, information about the object is generated in digital form and signed with an electronic digital signature (EDS) of the marker. Then, the received information is converted from a digital form to a barcode and applied to a mark (label) attached to the object. When identifying an object, a barcode is read, converted to digital form, the digital signature and information about the object are extracted from it. The authenticity of the EDS is checked and the read information about the object is compared with the database of genuine objects, the results of which identify the authenticity of the object.

 With this method, by applying information confirmed by an electronic digital signature in the form of a bar code to a mark (label), a higher security of the mark from counterfeiting is achieved and the convenience of reading information during instrument verification is ensured in comparison with the analogues considered earlier.

However, the prototype method has disadvantages:
- the relatively low reliability of confirming the authenticity of the object, which is used as information on paper, as the authenticity of the object in the prototype is judged indirectly - by the authenticity of information about individual characteristics of the object (type of object, manufacturer, production date, unique number of the object, etc. .P.). Due to the lack of an inextricable link between the protected text information and the information in the bar code, the prototype does not provide high reliability of information verification on paper;
- the difficulty of verifying objects due to a significant limitation of the circle of controlling persons, since only an expert who has the public key for verifying the digital signature of a particular marker and has the necessary information from the corresponding database of genuine objects can verify the object. The complexity of verification increases with the control of objects marked by different markers (marking organizations), since in this case it is necessary to have public keys for checking the digital signature of all markers, as well as to have the necessary information from the corresponding databases of genuine objects.

 The technical result of the claimed invention is the creation of a method that increases the reliability of the verification of the authenticity of information on paper and simplifies the verification process.

 The formulated technical result is achieved by the fact that in the known method of confirming the authenticity of information, which consists in generating control information in digital form, signing it with digital signature, converting the received information from digital form into a bar code and applying it to the object. When reading, the barcode is converted to digital form, the digital signature and control information are extracted from it, the authenticity of the digital signature and information on the object are verified. As an object, paper medium with text information printed on it is used, and all text information or a part of text information is used as control information, in addition, the EDS verification public key is additionally converted to a bar code, which is also applied to paper medium and used for authentication EDS.

 Either all the text information printed on paper or N of its fragments is converted to digital form, where N = 1,2,3, ..., and the text information in separate fragments is not duplicated.

 The control information in digital form, an electronic digital signature and the public key for verifying the digital signature are applied as a group of bar codes.

 Above the bar code is applied service text information indicating the means of cryptographic information protection and the implemented digital signature algorithm.

 Thanks to the new set of essential features, the reliability of confirming the authenticity of information on paper is increased, since combining text information and a bar code on a single paper with digital control information signed by the electronic signature of the marker allows the text information to be verified with high reliability and the specific marker to be identified by it EDS using a public key. The removal, addition or distortion of one or more characters of control information in a bar code with 100% reliability will be detected during the authentication of the digital signature. A high degree of reliability is provided by the cryptographic method of forming and verifying EDS. Distortions in the text of the document are detected when comparing the control information read from a bar code and displayed on a monitor screen or printed on paper, with the information displayed in the document.

 The verification process is simplified by displaying the public key for verifying the digital signature in the form of a bar code, applying it to paper and using it for verifying the authenticity of the digital signature. Eliminates the need for storage, transportation and bringing the public key of the digital signature verification to the controlling person (body) during each verification procedure. There is no need to use information from the database of genuine documents.

 In the particular case, with large volumes of text, one or more pieces of text information are subject to digitalization. This reduces the size of the barcode and simplifies document verification.

 Verification of a document is simplified by applying to a paper carrier a group of three bar codes containing control information, an electronic digital signature and a public verification key, respectively. Separate reading of bar codes in the process of document verification simplifies the subsequent processing of the read information.

 The application of official textual information indicating the means of cryptographic information protection and the implemented digital signature algorithm also simplifies the verification process.

 The analysis of the prior art made it possible to establish that analogues that are characterized by a combination of features that are identical to all the features of the claimed technical solution are absent, which indicates compliance of the claimed device with the patentability condition of "novelty".

 Search results for known solutions in this and related fields of technology in order to identify features that match the distinctive features of the claimed object from the prototype showed that they do not follow explicitly from the prior art. The prior art also did not reveal the popularity of the impact provided by the essential features of the claimed invention transformations to achieve the specified technical result. Therefore, the claimed invention meets the condition of patentability "inventive step".

The claimed method is illustrated by drawings:
FIG. 1 - two-dimensional bar code with control information, digital signature and public key verification;
FIG. 2 - a group of three bar codes;
FIG. 3 - a group of three bar codes with the application of official text information;
FIG. 4 is an example of marking a document.

 In order to protect documents and securities from fraud, a variety of security elements are currently used: watermarks, microprints, hard-to-print patterns, etc. At the same time, the development of technology has led to the emergence of a large number of relatively inexpensive copying technology, which allows high-precision copying of security elements and creates a real threat of falsification of documents, securities, etc.

 The widely used system of notarization of documents also does not provide absolute reliability. The notary guarantees the accuracy of the information presented in the document only at the time of verification and does not exclude its falsification in the future. In addition, verification of a notarized document is not reliable, which boils down to visual inspection of the stamp and seal of a notary public or confirmation of the number of a certified document in a notary’s office journal.

 Documents are executed more and more often using computers. A document prepared in a text editor is printed on a printer. This makes it possible to use cryptographic information protection software, including using the algorithm for generating and verifying electronic digital signatures to protect information printed on paper.

 Certified means of cryptographic information protection guarantee absolute, 100% reliability of information security. The RF Law "On Information, Informatization and Information Protection" of February 25, 1995, N 24-ФЗ, Article 5 recognizes the legal force of a document confirmed by an electronic digital signature.

 The basis of the present invention is the creation of such a method of protecting information on paper, which allows you to mark documents and with absolute, 100% reliability confirm its authenticity and identify the marker.

 The inventive method is as follows.

 Labeled text information printed on paper is converted into digital form, signed by the digital signature of the marker and determined as a control. Then the control information in digital form, an electronic digital signature and the public key for verifying the digital signature are converted into a bar code (Fig. 1), which is printed on the document. The amount of information displayed in the barcode does not exceed 1500-2000 bytes, including EDS (for example, 98 bytes) and the public key for checking EDS (for example, 256 bytes).

 The conversion of information into digital form is carried out in the process of preparing a document on a computer using a text editor, for example Word-97, or by electronically scanning a document using, for example, a Mustek ScanExpress 1200SP scanner and the FineReader computer program.

 The digital signature of the marker is formed according to the standard cryptographic algorithm (GOST R 34.10-94) using the secret key of the marker. For this, you can use, for example, the cryptographic information protection software - the CryptonArcMail library module, developed and mass-produced by ANKAD LLC in Moscow, published in the book by Yu.V. Romanets, P.A. Timofeev, V.F. Shangin "Information Security in Computer Systems and Networks" / Ed. V.F. Shangina, M., Radio and Communications, 1999, p. 281.

 Conversion of control information, electronic digital signature and public key of electronic digital signature verification into a two-dimensional barcode type Micro PDF 417 is carried out using the Anex Tools for PDF-417 ("Anx 417") software module version 1.61, developed by Anex Technologies Inc., Canada.

 The application of a barcode on paper is carried out by printing it, for example, using a laser printer such as HP LaserJet 1100 from HEWLETT PACKARD or a special barcode printer such as Data Mach Titan 6200.

 In the particular case, with large amounts of textual information, they are converted to digital form and one or more of its fragments are displayed in a barcode. For example, on a multi-page document, each page is marked, up to 1500-2000 characters.

 In order to simplify the instrument verification of textual information, marking can be performed by applying a group of three bar codes (Fig. 2) that display control information, an electronic digital signature and a public verification key. In FIG. Figure 3 presents a group of three barcodes with the application of service text information about the type of digital signature algorithm ("GOST R 34.10-94") and the cryptographic information protection software (Cryptographic Protection and Protection Index "CryptonArcMail"), which also facilitate instrument verification.

 During verification of marked information, a bar code is read, control information is digitally extracted, an electronic digital signature, and a public key for verifying EDS. Reading the barcode and converting it to digital form is carried out using a scanner, for example, a type Welch Allyn Scanteam 3400 HD. The authenticity of the EDS is checked using a personal computer according to the standard algorithm for checking the EDS (GOST R 34.10-94) using the public key for checking the EDS. If the digital signature is genuine, then the control information from the bar code is displayed on a computer screen or printed on paper and visually compared with the information presented in the document. Based on the results of the comparison, they conclude that the information presented in the document is authentic.

 In FIG. 4 illustrates an example of marking a text document. Here, as the textual information, an independent claim of the proposed method is used. The barcode displays control information, including all marked text, starting with the heading "Formula of the invention ..." and ending with the words "... when verifying the authenticity of an electronic digital signature." Separate bar codes respectively display the digital signature and the public key of verification.

 Declared as an invention, the technical solution provides high security for all marked information. Verification of documents is simplified, the need for recording, storing and delivering public keys for verifying EDS and information from various kinds of registration journals and computer databases is eliminated.

Claims (3)

 1. The method of confirming the authenticity of information, which consists in generating control information in digital form, signing it with an electronic digital signature, converting the received information from a digital form into a bar code, applying it to an object, and when reading, converting the bar code into digital form, extract an electronic digital signature and verification information from it, verify the authenticity of the electronic digital signature and information at the object, characterized in that paper is used as the object text information applied to it, and as control information, all text information or a part of text information is used, in addition, the public key for verifying electronic digital signature is additionally converted to a bar code, which is also applied to paper and used to verify the authenticity of the electronic digital signature, in this case, if the electronic digital signature is genuine, then the control information from the bar code is visually compared with the text information printed on paper nose and, based on the results of comparison, they conclude that the authenticity of the text information printed on paper.  2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the part of the text information is N non-duplicate fragments, where N = l, 2,3, ....  3. The method according to one of the preceding paragraphs, characterized in that the service text information with the means of cryptographic information protection and the electronic digital signature algorithm is applied over the bar code.

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