IC Card Access Control via Segmented Memory and Determining Portion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Portable electronic devices like IC cards face challenges in efficiently accessing data while ensuring secure access control based on predefined conditions, as existing technologies do not adequately manage access permissions for various data items stored in nonvolatile memory.
Innovation Solution
A portable electronic device with a communicating portion, a first storage portion for data, a second storage portion for access conditions, and a determining portion to assess and enforce access permissions based on these conditions before performing command processes, ensuring secure and efficient data access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If access control is implemented for each data item in nonvolatile memory, then security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments access control into two distinct storage portions: a first storage portion for data strings and a second storage portion for access conditions. This segmentation allows independent management of data and access rules, reducing the complexity of integrated access control structures while maintaining security for each data item.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a determining portion as an intermediary component that mediates between commands from external devices and access to data in nonvolatile memory. This intermediary evaluates access conditions before permitting data access, providing a structured security layer without requiring complex access control logic throughout the entire system.
2Productivity
If access conditions are stored separately from data, then access control efficiency is improved, but memory structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides memory into functionally distinct segments: a first storage portion for data strings and a second storage portion for access conditions. This segmentation enables efficient access control by allowing the determining portion to evaluate conditions independently from data retrieval, improving access control efficiency while maintaining a clear and organized memory structure.
3Ease of operation
If hierarchical file structure is used in nonvolatile memory, then data organization is improved, but access control difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies access conditions universally to all data strings in the hierarchical file structure through the second storage portion. This universal approach allows the same access control mechanism to manage permissions across multiple files and directories, simplifying access control management despite the hierarchical organization of data.
Data Source
AI summary
An IC card used as a portable electronic device includes a CPU which performs various processes by executing control programs, a memory which stores data files, and a communicating portion which communicates with an external device. When receiving a command from the external device via the communicating portion, the CPU of the IC card determines whether or not a process corresponding to the command for the data string specified by the command received from the external device can be performed based on one of access conditions set for the respective data strings in the files stored in the memory and performs a command process when it is determined in the above determining process that the command process for the data string specified by the command can be performed.