Environmental Factor Encryption Key Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data protection methods for user devices, such as passwords and biometric techniques, are vulnerable to guessing, theft, and spoofing, and require user input, which can be cumbersome and insecure.
Innovation Solution
A computer system that measures environmental factors like location, time, and network parameters to generate an encryption key, eliminating the need for user-entered passwords by converting these factors into entropy values and combining them to create a secure encryption key for data and application encryption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If passwords or biometric techniques are used for encryption, then user convenience is improved, but security is worsened due to vulnerability to guessing, theft, and spoofing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically measuring environmental factors and generating encryption keys without requiring user input. The device itself collects data from sensors (GPS, accelerometer, camera, microphone) and transforms this environmental data into cryptographic keys, eliminating the need for users to provide passwords or biometric data while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters used for encryption from static user-provided data (passwords, biometrics) to dynamic environmental parameters. By continuously measuring and transforming environmental factors into entropy values, the system generates ever-changing encryption keys that are difficult to predict or replicate, thereby improving security while maintaining ease of operation.
2Reliability
If strong passwords are used for encryption, then security is improved, but vulnerability to theft increases and user convenience deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system eliminates the need for users to create, remember, or input strong passwords by automatically generating encryption keys from environmental data. The device performs all cryptographic operations autonomously, transforming environmental measurements into secure keys without requiring any user action, thus improving both security and convenience simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical system of manual password entry and management with an automated environmental sensing and transformation system. Instead of relying on human users to provide cryptographic secrets, the system uses sensors to capture environmental data and automatically transforms this data into encryption keys through entropy calculation and cryptographic functions.
3Reliability
If environmental factors are measured and transformed to generate encryption keys, then security is improved by creating unpredictable keys, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system leverages the existing multi-functional sensors already present in modern devices (GPS for location, accelerometer for motion, camera for visual data, microphone for audio) and repurposes them for cryptographic key generation. By making these existing components serve the additional function of environmental measurement for encryption, the system improves security without significantly increasing overall device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary transformation process that converts diverse environmental measurements into standardized entropy values. This intermediary step uses hash functions and entropy calculation algorithms to transform data from multiple different sensor types into a unified cryptographic format, simplifying the integration of multiple sensors while maintaining high security through the mathematical transformation process.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer system is provided. The computer system includes a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to measure one or more environmental factors; convert the one or more environmental factors to entropy values by truncation or rounding of the one or more environmental factors to a selected number of bits; and combine the entropy values to generate an encryption key. The one or more environmental factors may include a location of the computer system, a current date and time, parameters of a network environment to which the computer system is connected, or an identification of a server to which the computer system is connected. The at least one processor is further configured to encrypt and/or decrypt at least a portion of a data file and/or at least a portion of a binary executable application using the encryption key.