Selective Authentication for Confidential Print Jobs
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Solution Overview
Problem
In shared image forming systems, ensuring information security of printed documents is challenging due to varying user awareness of confidentiality, as existing methods require user authentication for all print jobs, which can be cumbersome and inconsistent.
Innovation Solution
An image forming device system that allows selective user authentication on a per-job basis, enabling the device to automatically switch between authentication print and normal print modes based on job data settings, ensuring security without necessitating user input for all print jobs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If user authentication is required for all print jobs, then information security is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the print job processing into two distinct modes: authentication print mode and normal print mode. This segmentation allows the system to apply different security protocols to different jobs based on their confidentiality requirements, rather than uniformly requiring authentication for all prints. The segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling selective authentication only when necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic switching between authentication and normal print modes based on job-specific settings. The image forming device can dynamically adjust its authentication requirements for each print job according to predetermined parameters set by the user or system administrator. This dynamic approach resolves the contradiction by making authentication requirements flexible rather than static.
2Reliability
If user authentication is required for all print jobs, then information security is improved, but productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting print jobs into confidential and non-confidential categories, the system eliminates unnecessary authentication steps for routine prints while maintaining security for sensitive documents. This segmentation restores productivity by allowing rapid printing of everyday materials without authentication delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies authentication partially rather than universally - only to print jobs marked as confidential. This partial action approach maintains information security for sensitive documents while avoiding the productivity loss that would result from requiring authentication on every single print job.
3Ease of operation
If selective authentication per job is implemented, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having users or administrators pre-configure authentication requirements for different print jobs before actual printing occurs. The image forming device stores these predetermined settings and automatically retrieves them when processing print jobs, eliminating the need for complex real-time decision-making logic during the printing process itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing users to mark their own print jobs as confidential or non-confidential based on their knowledge of the document's sensitivity. The image forming device then automatically applies the appropriate authentication mode without requiring complex system-wide configuration or administrator intervention for each job.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an image forming device capable of maintaining a security level of a document constant, and an image forming device terminal. The image forming device capable of executing an authentication print printing includes a storage unit for storing a document data file and setting data of the authentication print printing of the document data file; a communication interface for receiving instruction data containing instruction of a process related to the document data file; an authentication print setting determination unit for determining whether to execute as the authentication print printing based on setting data stored in the storage unit; an authentication unit; a user authentication unit for outputting the result of the user authentication; a job executing unit for executing the job; and an authentication print setting registration unit for editing the setting data stored in the storage unit based on the instruction data.