Distributed-Ledger Document Marking for Traceable Leak Sources
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital watermarking systems fail to provide effective anti-leak protection by uniquely identifying individuals who access or distribute sensitive documents, as they often use obvious QR codes and do not generate unique hash values for each document access.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses a server to generate a unique visual code based on a hash value, including a pattern of polygons and greyscale shading, which is embedded in digital documents to track users accessing or downloading the documents, utilizing a distributed ledger to record each interaction and update the visual code accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional digital watermarking systems use obvious QR codes for document marking, then the implementation is simple and easy to detect, but the system fails to provide effective anti-leak protection and cannot uniquely identify individuals who access or distribute sensitive documents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the watermark from a static QR code to a dynamic visual code that changes parameters based on document access. Each access generates a unique hash value that modifies the visual code's appearance (polygon patterns, greyscale shading), making each instance traceable to a specific user while maintaining visual subtlety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by generating unique visual codes before document distribution. The hash value is calculated in advance based on document metadata and user identity, and the visual code is embedded proactively, enabling subsequent leak tracking without requiring additional processing when leaks occur.
2Measurement precision
If unique visual codes are generated for each document access using distributed ledger, then leak source identification accuracy is high, but the system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The distributed ledger serves as an intermediary that stores and verifies unique hash values without requiring complex client-side verification logic. The visual code itself acts as an intermediary carrier that embeds traceable information in a visually subtle manner, bridging the gap between digital tracking and physical document inspection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical QR code scanning systems with a hash-based visual code system. Instead of relying on standardized QR code structures that are easily recognized and copied, the system uses cryptographic hash functions to generate unique polygon patterns and greyscale variations that are computationally derived rather than mechanically structured.
3Loss of information
If traditional watermarking embeds visible codes in documents, then the tracking information is easily readable, but the documents are visibly modified and the watermarking is easily removed or altered
Solution Approach 1:
The visual code modifies only specific local regions of the document (individual pixels or small groups of pixels) rather than applying obvious overlays across the entire document. The polygon patterns and greyscale shading are applied locally to maintain document readability while embedding tracking information in a way that is difficult to remove without affecting the document content.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses subtle color and greyscale changes to embed the visual code. By modifying pixel intensity values and creating polygon patterns through grayscale variations, the watermark becomes imperceptible to human observers while remaining detectable through algorithmic analysis, thus preserving document appearance and integrity.
4Loss of information
If the system stores entire documents with embedded codes on the server, then complete tracking information is available, but the storage requirements and processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential tracking information (unique hash values, user identifiers, access timestamps) from the complete document interaction data and stores these extracted elements in the distributed ledger. This eliminates the need to store entire document copies while maintaining complete tracking capability through the distributed ledger's immutable record of hash values.
Data Source
AI summary
The system is disclosed for visual marking sensitive documents for leak prevention. Each time an action is taken with regard to a document (e.g., creation, viewing, downloading), that action is added to a distributed ledger, essentially creating a unique hash for a new instance of the document. This new hash is visually embedded in the document as a code comprising a plurality of differently shaded pixels, wherein some of the pixels directly encode information regarding the document (e.g., an account that generated the new instance of the document, a date, a time, a unique ID for the document, etc.) and some of the pixels do not encode information. The code is capable of being scanned either digitally or physically on a printed version of the document, such that the immediate source of the document, corresponding to who leaked the document, is able to be discerned.