Document Obfuscation for Secure Outsourced Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for document collaboration are inadequate in protecting sensitive information during outsourcing, as they often require obfuscation strategies that are limited to simple transactions and do not effectively manage complex document transformations while maintaining confidentiality.
Innovation Solution
A system that allows an outsourcing entity to create a non-obfuscated original document, obfuscate sensitive items, provide the obfuscated document to a worker entity, receive transformed changes, and then de-obfuscate the document to restore sensitive information, ensuring that sensitive content remains inaccessible to the worker entity throughout the collaboration process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the author obfuscates sensitive items in the document to protect confidentiality, then information security is improved, but the document loses its original content and becomes less useful for complex transformations
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the document into sensitive and non-sensitive portions, applying different handling strategies to each. Sensitive items are identified and replaced with obfuscated placeholders, while non-sensitive content remains intact and editable, allowing collaborative transformation without exposing confidential information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary obfuscation layer that mediates between the need for information security and the need for document utility. This layer allows workers to perform transformations on obfuscated content while preserving the ability to restore original sensitive information later, thus maintaining both security and document functionality.
2Manufacturing precision
If the author distributes the original non-obfuscated document to workers for transformation, then the document transformation quality is improved, but sensitive information is exposed to unauthorized individuals
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a copy of the original document with sensitive items replaced by obfuscated placeholders. This copied version is distributed to workers for transformation, allowing them to work with document structure and formatting without accessing actual sensitive content, thus maintaining transformation quality while preventing information exposure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter state of sensitive items from their original form to an obfuscated form before distribution. This parameter transformation allows workers to perform transformations on the document structure while the sensitive content remains in a protected state, eliminating information exposure risk.
3Reliability
If the system uses simple obfuscation strategies for one-way transactions, then information security is maintained, but the system cannot handle complex collaborative document transformations
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts the obfuscation level and type based on the transaction type and worker requirements. For simple one-way transactions, basic obfuscation is applied, while for complex collaborative transformations, the system maintains more sophisticated obfuscation that preserves document structure and enables multiple transformation operations while maintaining security throughout the collaborative process.
Data Source
AI summary
An outsourcing environment is described herein by which an outsourcing entity may delegate document-transformation tasks to at least one worker entity, while preventing the worker entity from gaining knowledge of sensitive items that may be contained within a non-obfuscated original document (NOD). In one example, the environment may transform the NOD into an obfuscated original document (OOD) by removing sensitive items from the NOD. The worker entity may perform formatting and/or other document-transformation tasks on the OOD, without gaining knowledge of the sensitive items in the NOD, to produce an obfuscated transformed document (OTD). The environment may then allow for the outsourcing entity to view a content-restored version of the OTD.