Placeholder Generation for Data String Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for replacing security-relevant unencrypted data strings with placeholders lack enhanced cryptographic security, particularly in scenarios where data sets containing sensitive information like card or account numbers need to be transmitted and processed securely, as attackers can exploit the predictability of replacement characters.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that generates placeholders by selecting a subset of replacement tables based on substrings within the data string, where each character replacement depends on another substring, ensuring each character is replaced multiple times, enhancing cryptographic security by making the replacement process format-maintaining and difficult for attackers to reverse.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a simple replacement method is used where each character is replaced once using a single replacement table, then the processing speed is fast and the implementation is simple, but the cryptographic security is weak and attackers can easily deduce the original data
Solution Approach 1:
The data string is divided into multiple substrings, and different replacement tables are selected for different segments. This segmentation allows the system to apply multiple replacement operations with different tables, significantly increasing cryptographic security while maintaining manageable processing complexity through structured segment handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The replacement process is performed multiple times in periodic rounds, where each round uses a different replacement table selected based on the round number and substring position. This periodic application of replacement operations with varying tables ensures that each character undergoes multiple transformations, making cryptographic analysis extremely difficult while keeping the implementation systematic and organized.
2Reliability
If multiple replacement operations are performed on each character to enhance security, then cryptographic security improves, but the processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying excessive replacement operations to every character uniformly, the system applies partial replacement actions where different numbers of replacement rounds are performed on different substrings based on their security requirements and positions. This selective approach achieves adequate cryptographic security for all data while minimizing unnecessary processing time on less critical segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The replacement process is made dynamic by selecting different numbers of replacement rounds and different replacement tables based on the specific substring being processed, its position in the data string, and the current round number. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to optimize the balance between security enhancement and processing efficiency for each segment of data.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method of replacing a security-relevant unencrypted data string by a placeholder. The steps involved include: providing a plurality of mutually different replacement tables, wherein specified in each of the plurality of replacement tables for each character of the alphabet is precisely one replacement character from the same alphabet and wherein the replacement characters in each of the plurality of replacement tables are all different from each other; receiving the security-relevant unencrypted data string, wherein the data string is formed from a plurality of characters of an alphabet; and generating the placeholder replacing the unencrypted data string, and outputting the placeholder. To provide a method which is distinguished by enhanced performance with comparable cryptographic security it is proposed. Generation of the placeholder includes the specifically identified steps.