Portable Terminal Document Security with Dynamic Location and Time Policies

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing document management systems for portable terminals struggle to enforce complex security policies, particularly regarding location and time parameters, leading to difficulties in preventing unauthorized access to sensitive documents.

Innovation Solution

A portable terminal and document management system that encodes documents and sets security parameters based on location and time, allowing access only to terminals with valid authority, using encoding schemes like password or common key encryption, and restricting access geographically or temporally.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a simple license policy is used to control document access, then the ease of operation is improved, but the adaptability to complex security policies deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of operationVSAvoidadaptability
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The security policy is made dynamic by allowing multiple conditions (location, time, user identity) to be combined in various ways. The system evaluates security policies dynamically based on current terminal state rather than using fixed simple licenses, enabling adaptation to complex security requirements while maintaining ease of operation through automated evaluation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes from static license-based access control to dynamic parameter-based security evaluation. Multiple parameters (location coordinates, time stamps, user identity) are evaluated together to determine access rights, allowing complex security policies to be enforced without complicating user operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Reliability

If document access is restricted based on multiple security parameters, then the reliability of information security is improved, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovereliabilityVSAvoiddevice complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The security evaluation is segmented into distinct functional modules: location acquisition module, time acquisition module, security parameter setting module, and policy evaluation module. Each module handles a specific aspect of security control, which reduces overall system complexity while maintaining high reliability through specialized processing of each security parameter.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces a document server as an intermediary that stores security policies and coordinates between the terminal and document storage. The terminal evaluates local security parameters and communicates with the server to enforce policies, distributing complexity across multiple components rather than concentrating it in one device.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If documents are made accessible outside the office, then the productivity is improved, but the loss of information increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveproductivityVSAvoidloss of information
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies preliminary anti-action by pre-configuring security policies that automatically prevent information leakage before it can occur. Location and time-based restrictions are set in advance, and the system actively blocks document access when security conditions are not met, countering potential information loss before unauthorized access can happen while still allowing productive remote work under approved conditions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

Data Source

PatentEP2763074B1Portable terminal, document management method, and portable terminal program
Publication Date: 2019.10.02 OPTIM
  • EP2763074B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2763074B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2763074B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Provided is content management coping with a complicated security policy. In a document management system 1, a portable terminal 10 encodes a document 2, and uploads the document to a document server 200. In addition, the document server 200 is notified of other portable terminals 10A and 10B having the right of access to the document 2 as an access group 9, and information for decoding the document is transmitted to the portable terminals 10A and 10B. At this time, only the portable terminals 10A and 10B can download the document 2 from the document server 200, and can decode the document. Further, the portable terminal 10 sets security parameters so that it can impose restriction depending on not only a unique ID of a terminal but also a time or a current location, in an access to the document 2.