CN1377492A - Devices for measuring and analyzing data or signals and methods for verifying the identity or authorization of persons - Google Patents

Abstract

When checking the identity or authorization of a person, secret or personal-specific data are protected against intrusion by third parties in that the data are checked in a protected area. And if the verification result is positive, carrying out encryption coding on input data input from the outside by using the key stored in the protection area. The input data encrypted and encoded is outputted to the outside. The identity or authorization can be verified by decryption.

Description

Devices for measuring and analyzing data or signals and methods for verifying the identity or authorization of persons

As information technology systems continue to expand, methods of verifying a person's identity or authorization are becoming more and more important. Known methods of this type all have in common that an authorized person is identified with respect to an information technology system by means of information or a characteristic known only to that person, and said characteristic is that the person Unique, unique and unchanging.

A person's biometrics, such as fingerprint patterns, iris patterns, and the like, are characterized by their uniqueness and invariance. Therefore, each person can be easily identified from biometrics with the help of information technology systems. The secret keyword can also be a specific characteristic of a person as long as the keyword is not revealed. For this reason, biometrics and keywords are well suited for the above purposes.

The modern biometric identification method is to use special sensors to determine the biological characteristics of people as the original data. The original features are extracted from these raw data with the help of special algorithms. Identification or identification is then achieved by comparing the stored reference signature array with the current signature.

Apparently, the reliability of the method mainly depends on the inability of illegal persons to obtain the original data, extracted feature arrays and keywords. But in the systems known today, this requirement cannot be satisfied, or not satisfied enough. The object underlying the invention is to improve this situation. This object is achieved by a device for determining and evaluating data or signals having the characterizing parts of claim 1 or by a method for checking the identity or authorization of a person having the characterizing parts of claim 5 .

Here, the invention is based on the idea that the characteristic data of a person are not transmitted to an external system, but rather these data or signals are determined by means of a device possessed by the authorized person, and the data obtained by this device from the external system are then transferred by means of said device. The input data are encrypted, so that the external system does not recognize the authorization of the authorizer to be protected from his identity, but from the correct encryption of the input data. In this case, the identification of the features and the encryption of the input data are preferably carried out in a very secure device against unauthorized access. Misuse of a person's characteristic data can thus be effectively prevented.

Preferred developments of the invention are given by the subclaims.

The invention is explained below with the aid of preferred exemplary embodiments and with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 schematically shows the structure of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and at the same time illustrates the flow of the method of the present invention.

The device according to the invention for measuring and analyzing data or signals, especially for checking the identity or authorization of persons, etc., comprises: a device (DE) for measuring data (D) or signal (S); means (DV) for data or signals measured in said device; and means (KE) for encrypting and encoding input data (ED) in said device.

The device for measuring data or signals may be a simple keyboard of a computer or a communication terminal or other small devices. Of course, instead of the keyboard, an image input medium can also be used, for example, a pressure-sensing input surface with a display placed below it can be used. Such an input device is particularly suitable for determining keywords or signatures.

However, the device for determining the data or signal can also be a microphone, or a video camera or a fingerprint sensor. Other devices are also conceivable, in particular for determining biological characteristics of a person. The measured data or signals may include characters, numbers, handwriting, relevant sound samples, phonetic words or sentences, etc., which are suitable for authentication or verification of human authorization. These data or signals can be verified directly, or by the verification device (DV) after extraction of the characteristic data (MD). According to the invention, the testing device is located within said device. Thus, the data or signals to be checked, or the characteristic data extracted from them, do not leave the device during the check.

For this reason, the user can ensure that his data will not be misused if at least the user has exclusive possession of the device and can exclude unauthorized persons. If the verification is carried out successfully (positive), that is to say that the measured data and signals indicate in the sense of the verification that the input was performed by an authorized user, the input data (ED) entered into the device from the outside are encrypted by means of encryption. Encoding equipment (KE) performs encryption encoding within the device.

At this point, the external system can verify the correct encryption code of the input data, thereby verifying the person's identity or authorization. For this, it is only necessary to read out the encrypted input data and check it. The person's profile data resides within said device, thus preventing misuse.

Checking the data of a person within the device can be accomplished using various methods. On the one hand, the key required for encrypting the input data is calculated directly from the measured data or signal, or from characteristic data extracted therefrom. Another possibility is to input the characteristic data into a decision function, from which the test result is directly produced in the form of a yes/no decision. Instead, it is easiest to compare said data, signal or characteristic data with reference data (RD) stored in the memory (SE1) of said device. However, the two methods described above have the advantage that the data to be protected are not themselves stored in the device, so misuse is better protected.

If the key (K) is not directly calculated in the device, it is advantageous to store it in the memory (SE2) of the device. Another possibility is to use a "fixed connection" algorithm for the encryption, in which the key is implicitly hidden in the structure of the circuit. However, this method has the disadvantage of high manufacturing costs. This explicitly stored key is located next to the reference data of individual-specific parameters, which may be stored in the device, which is otherwise a universal device.

However, in addition to symmetric keys which are suitable for the invention in principle, asymmetric key pairs can also be used in particular. In this case, said key (K) is a private key of the authorized person, ie kept secret. Instead, the public key is used to decrypt encrypted input data in an external information system that verifies the person's identity or authorization.

In particular, random or pseudo-random sequences of characters, numbers or symbols are suitable as input data (ED), the correct encryption code of these sequences can be easily checked by an external verification system, and in fact they cannot be checked by Predicted or guessed by an intruder. Moreover, the restoration time of the symbol sequence can be sufficiently long, that is, practically infinite.

Claims (8)

1. Devices for determining and analyzing data or signals, especially for checking the identity or authorization of persons, etc., having the following characteristics: a) equipment (DE) for determining data (D) or signal (S); b) a device (DV) for checking the data or signal of said assay within said device; c) A device (KE) for encrypting the input data (ED) within the device. 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measured data or signal is checked by storing said data or signal, or characteristic data (MD) derived therefrom, in a memory device (SE1) of said apparatus ) is compared to the reference data (RD). 3. The device as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein the input data (ED) are encrypted by means of a key (K) stored in a memory (SE2) of the device. 4. The device as claimed in one of the preceding claims, wherein a device (MT) is provided for transmitting the encrypted input data (ED). 5. A method of verifying a person's identity or authorization, comprising the following steps: a) input of confidential data by the person into a device, or the determination of personal characteristics, in particular biometrics, of the person by said device by means of a sensor device; b) verifying said input data or said measured sensory data within said device; c) If the result of this check is positive, the input data is encrypted and encoded within the device. 6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said input data or measured sensory data is checked by comparing the data or characteristic data derived therefrom with a reference stored in a storage device of said apparatus. data are compared. 7. The method as claimed in one of claims 5 or 6, wherein said input data (ED) are encrypted by means of a key (K) stored in a memory (SE2) of said device. 8. Method according to any one of claims 5, 6 or 7, wherein said key stored in said device is the private key of the authorized person, and said key is transferred by means of a transmission means (MT) The encrypted input data are transmitted to a receiving device outside the device, and are verified by this receiving device or a device connected thereto by decryption using the public key of the authorized person.

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