Image Forming Apparatus Selective Log Storage for External Network Jobs
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The existing image forming apparatuses face a heavy load on their storage areas due to uniformly acquiring audit logs, which are different in volume based on job generation conditions, leading to inefficiencies in security management when issues arise.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus selectively generates and stores different types of logs based on job conditions, storing larger logs only when jobs are related to external network usage and omitting them for jobs with different conditions, thereby optimizing storage capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If audit logs are uniformly acquired for all jobs, then security analysis capability is improved, but storage load increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating log storage policies based on job characteristics. Specifically, image logs (large-volume logs) are stored selectively only for jobs involving external network communication, while other jobs use standard log storage. This creates a non-uniform storage strategy where different parts of the log data are treated differently based on their security relevance, resolving the contradiction between comprehensive security monitoring and manageable storage requirements.
2Loss of information
If all types of logs are stored for every job, then complete security trail is improved, but storage capacity is overwhelmed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates image logs (large-volume data) from standard logs, applying different storage policies to each. By extracting the determination of whether to store image logs based on external network job characteristics, the system maintains complete security trails for relevant jobs while avoiding unnecessary storage of large volumes of data for jobs that don't require it, thus preventing storage capacity overload.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by storing image logs only when necessary (for external network jobs) rather than for all jobs. This selective approach provides sufficient security monitoring coverage for high-risk operations while avoiding the excessive storage burden that would result from universally storing all log types for every job, effectively balancing security completeness with storage constraints.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus capable of communicating with one or more information processing apparatuses via a network, includes one or more controllers having one or more processors and one or more memories, the one or more controllers being configured to perform log generation of generating a plurality of types of logs including a log related to a job, and to perform log storage of storing the plurality of types of logs, wherein the log storage stores a first type log and a second type log larger than the first type log in volume when the job is a job related to a first condition of using an external network, and stores the first type log and does not store the second type log when the job is a job related to a condition different from the first condition.