Simultaneous Alert Delivery via Client-Side Encryption and Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to deliver messages simultaneously to a large number of geographically dispersed user devices with high accuracy and security, particularly in scenarios where real-time synchronization and encryption are crucial.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a server that downloads encrypted alert information to user devices equipped with alert-based clients, which store the messages until a specified delivery time and decrypt them for simultaneous release, using real-time and device clocks for synchronization and tamper detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If messages are delivered directly from server to multiple user devices simultaneously, then delivery speed is improved, but message security and timing precision deteriorate due to network latency variations and clock synchronization issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by downloading and storing encrypted alert information on user devices before the actual delivery time. The devices retain the encrypted messages locally and only decrypt and display them at the precisely scheduled moment, ensuring simultaneous delivery across geographically dispersed locations while maintaining security and timing accuracy.
2Reliability
If encrypted alert information is stored on user devices before delivery time, then message security and timing precision are improved, but device complexity and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a copy of the encrypted alert information and stores it on the user device. This copied encrypted data remains dormant until the scheduled delivery time, at which point it is decrypted and displayed. This copying approach enhances security by preventing premature access while maintaining relatively simple device architecture through standard encryption and storage functions.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If real-time clock comparison is performed to detect tampering, then detection capability is improved, but processing time and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously comparing the device's real-time clock against the encrypted alert's embedded timestamp information. This feedback mechanism detects clock tampering or irregularities by identifying discrepancies between expected and actual time data, enabling security monitoring with minimal processing overhead through simple time comparison operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided, inter alia, is a system for generating substantially simultaneous alerts, in which a plurality of user devices is accessible via at least one publicly available network. Each such user device has installed on it an alert-based client. A server is configured to download identical alert information, including a message that has been encrypted, to the plurality of user devices. The alert-based clients are configured to receive the alert information and, in response: (i) to store the message in encrypted form until just prior to a specified delivery time; and (ii) to decrypt and deliver the message substantially at the specified delivery time. By virtue of the foregoing arrangement, substantially simultaneous delivery of the message to the user devices is achieved.