JP2001084174A - Information leakage preventing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the leakage of information stored in an information storing means. SOLUTION: A hard disk controlling part 7 equipped with a control part 23 for controlling the storage of information in a hard disk driving device 15 and the reading of the information from the hard disk driving device 15 is arranged at an electronic equipment side. A burglar preventing outside device 22 different from the electronic equipment is fixed indoor or the like. An encipherment algorithm and a decoding algorithm are stored in an ROM 24 in the hard disk controlling part 7. An encipherment key and a decoding key are, in advance, stored in an ROM 28 in the burglar preventing external device 22. A controlling part 23 obtains the encipherment key and the decoding key from the burglar preventing outside device 22 through I/F circuits 25, 27 being communication equipment, and operates the encipherment and decoding of the information based on the encipherment algorithm and the decoding algorithm, and controls the storage of the information into the hard disk driving device 15 and the reading of the information from the hard disk driving device 15.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information leakage prevention device for protecting information stored or recorded on an information storage device such as a hard disk or an information recording medium such as a flexible disk or an optical disk from theft or other illegal acts. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, electronic equipment using a microprocessor, such as a personal computer, has become widespread, and document information and multimedia information have been converted into electronic data and stored in various forms of information storage devices or information storage media. It began to be recorded and operated.

[0003]

The information stored or recorded (hereinafter, referred to as "storage") in an information storage device or an information recording medium (hereinafter, these are collectively referred to as information storage means) is protected from an unauthorized actor. The need to do so is extremely high.

For example, a personal computer is, by its nature, an operating system (Operating System).
m: OS), hard disk, flexible disk, CD (Compact Disc), DVD (Digital Video Di
Extremely versatility that enables information such as data and programs to be stored in information storage means such as sc or Digital Versatile Disc) and executes various application programs to interactively edit the information in these information storage means High device.

For this reason, even if a specific person creates a content such as document data and a program using a specific personal computer and stores it in the information storage means, the content may be kept secret from a third party. However, there has been a problem that an unauthorized actor steals these information storage means, and the content can be relatively easily stolen using a personal computer owned by the unauthorized actor.

In particular, it has been pointed out that a fraudulent actor (attacker) who has a high level of electronic technical knowledge can decrypt or plagiarize the contents of another person (authorized person) by using his / her own program. Was.

[0007] It is an object of the present invention to provide an information leakage prevention device that can protect information stored in information storage means against such an illegal actor.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an information leakage prevention device for protecting information stored in an information storage unit of an information storage unit provided in an electronic apparatus. When storing information in the information storage means, the information is encrypted based on an encryption algorithm and stored in the information storage means, and when reading information from the information storage means, the read information is decrypted based on a decryption algorithm. Control means, an external device that supplies an encryption key for the encryption and a decryption key for the decryption to the control means, and communication means provided for each of the control means and the external device. Wherein the control means is provided in the electronic device having the information storage means, and the external device is provided outside the electronic device, and the external device is provided through the communication means. And supplying the encryption key and the decryption key to Luo said control means.

Further, the communication means is a wired communication means or a wireless communication means.

[0010] According to this configuration, the control means encrypts the information with the encryption key and the encryption algorithm obtained from the external device via the communication means, and stores the encrypted information in the information storage means. Further, when reading the information stored in the information storage means, by using a decryption key and a decryption algorithm obtained from an external device via the communication means,
Decode the read information. Therefore, the information storage means stores the encrypted information.

When an unauthorized actor steals the information storage means and tries to obtain the stored information, the information storage means is connected to an electronic device to which no external device is connected, and the information obtaining operation is performed. Even if you try to do so, because the decryption key provided in the external device can not be obtained,
It is not possible to decrypt the information that is encrypted and stored in the information storage means, and the leakage of the information is substantially prevented.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example when the information leakage prevention device of the present embodiment is applied to a general-purpose personal computer, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information leakage prevention device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of use of the information leakage prevention device, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information leakage prevention device.

In FIG. 1, the information leakage prevention device includes an external device 22 for preventing theft and an internal device (not shown) provided for the anti-theft device provided in the hard disk controller 7 and an electric device for electrically connecting these devices. It is constituted by a cable 30.

A portion indicated by reference numeral 1 is a main body of a general-purpose personal computer. Since the configuration of a personal computer is generally known, detailed description thereof is omitted here, but main components are provided on an electric circuit board called a so-called motherboard.

For example, a bus BUS for data transfer is formed on the above-described electric circuit board, and the bus BUS is provided with a microprocessor (MPU) 2 and a memory unit 3, a hard disk control unit 7, and other auxiliary units. Storage device controller 8, display controller 9, keyboard controller 10, mouse controller 11, printer controller 12, communication controller 1
3, a DMA controller 14 and the like are connected, and the control units 7 to 13 and the DMA controller 14 constitute an input / output control unit 6.

Here, the memory unit 3 includes a read only memory (ROM) 4 and a dynamic access memory (DRAM).
5, a startup program, a DRAM,
5 stores an execution program and the like.

A hard disk drive 15, which is an auxiliary storage device, is connected to the hard disk control unit 7, and a floppy (registered trademark) disk drive, a CD drive, and a DVD are connected to the other auxiliary storage device control units 8. Another auxiliary storage device 16 such as a driving device is connected. Also,
The hard disk drive 15 and the other auxiliary storage device 16 include a built-in type built in the main body of the personal computer and an external type connected outside the main body.

A display 17 for display is connected to the display control unit 9, a keyboard 18 is connected to the keyboard control unit 10, a mouse 19 is connected to the mouse control unit 11, and a printer 20 is connected to the printer control unit 12. -23
A communication control unit 13 having a 2C interface circuit and the like is connected to a modem 21 and the like that enable communication between telephone lines.

In such a general-purpose personal computer, an electric cable 3 is connected between a connection port 7a provided at one end of the hard disk control section 7 and a connection port 22a provided at one end of the external device 22 for preventing theft.
By connecting with 0, the above-described anti-theft internal device provided in the hard disk control unit 7 and the anti-theft external device 22 are connected.

Next, the configuration of the information leakage prevention device will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, the information leakage prevention device is configured by the theft prevention external device 22 and the theft prevention internal device provided in the hard disk control unit 7.

The internal device for theft prevention is mainly composed of a read-only memory (RO) provided in the hard disk controller 7.
M) 24, which is a so-called firmware in which a dedicated program for theft prevention is stored in advance.

That is, the hard disk control unit 7
A controller 23 for controlling data transfer between the hard disk drive 15 and the DRAM 5 under the control of the microprocessor 2 or the DMA controller 14;
An I / F circuit (interface circuit) 25 for connecting the hard disk drive device 15 to the hard disk drive device 15 is provided. The control unit 23 is further connected to a ROM 24 which is a main part of an internal device for preventing theft.

The I / F circuit 2 of the hard disk control unit 7 is connected to the anti-theft external device 22 by an electric cable 30.
5, an I / F circuit 27 for connection to the
A read-only memory (ROM) 28 and a control unit 26 that controls transfer of anti-theft data stored in the ROM 28 in advance in response to a request from the hard disk control unit 7 are provided.

The anti-theft external device 22 includes an I / F circuit 27 and a control unit 26 in a casing (not shown) having a predetermined shape.
A fixing member 29 which can be fixed to a wall or a desk in a room by screws is integrated with one end of the housing.

Here, the ROM of the hard disk control unit 7
An encryption algorithm, a decryption algorithm, and a load module for transferring and storing these algorithms to the DRAM 5 are stored in advance in the anti-theft dedicated program 24.

On the other hand, the ROM 2 of the external device 22 for preventing theft
8 stores an encryption key and a decryption key in advance as the anti-theft data.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the anti-theft external device 22 is fixed to a wall or a desk in a room via a fixing member 29, and further connected to the hard disk control unit 7 by an electric cable 30. Then, attachment to a personal computer is performed.

Next, the operation of the information leakage apparatus having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 1, when a personal computer is started, a setup operation is started under an operating system (OS) as is well known. Then, in this setup operation, when the microprocessor 2 makes an initial access to the hard disk control unit 7 (step 100), the control unit 23 receives the first access from the dedicated anti-theft program stored in the ROM 24. Is read out and stored in the DRAM 5 (step 102). Next, the microprocessor 2 executes the load module stored in the DRAM 5 and accesses the hard disk control unit 7 again, whereby the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm in the ROM 24 are read out and stored in the RDAM 5. (Step 104).

Subsequently, by executing the load module, the hard disk control unit 7 is requested to access the anti-theft external device 22 (step 1).
06), it is determined whether or not access has been made (step 108). Here, if the access is not possible (in the case of “NO”), the process proceeds to step 112 and
A so-called error interrupt occurs, and the setup operation does not end normally. That is, the anti-theft external device 22
Is not connected to a personal computer,
If an unauthorized device is connected, step 108
In this case, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred or an illegal act has occurred, and the user cannot use the personal computer.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 108 that the access is possible (in the case of "YES"), the process proceeds to step 110, where the control unit 2 in the theft prevention external device 22 is controlled.
6 receives the access request, reads out the data of the encryption key and the decryption key stored in the ROM 28, and transfers the data to the hard disk control unit 7, thereby storing the data in the DRAM 5.

When the other setup operation is completed, the setup operation at the time of startup in the personal computer is completed, and the personal computer enters a normal operation mode in which an application program or the like can be executed.

When the personal computer enters the normal operation mode in this manner, when, for example, an application program or data is stored on the disk in the hard disk drive 15, the encryption algorithm and the encryption key stored in the DRAM 5 are executed. Then, the application program and data are encrypted under the encryption algorithm and the encryption key, and
Is stored on the disk inside.

The decryption algorithm and the decryption key stored in the DRAM 5 are executed when an encrypted application program, data, or the like already stored in the disk in the hard disk drive 15 is read.
Then, it decrypts the encrypted application program, data, or the like and stores it in the DRAM 5 or supplies it to the microprocessor 2.

That is, the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm and the encryption key and the decryption key are used to store or read out the program or data from the disk in the hard disk drive 15 by performing the encryption and decryption processing. Thus, the encrypted programs and data are always stored on the disk in the hard disk drive 15.

As described above, according to the information leakage prevention device of the present embodiment, the external device 22 for anti-theft and the internal device for anti-theft provided in the hard disk controller 7 are connected by the electric cable 30. If not, the personal computer cannot operate normally, and the encryption and decryption algorithms provided in the ROM 24 of the internal device for theft prevention and the ROM 28 of the external device 22 for theft prevention are provided. The hard disk drive 1 encrypts and decrypts data and programs based on the encrypted encryption key and decryption key
Since the storage and reading are performed on the disk of No. 5, the following effects can be obtained.

First, an unauthorized actor steals the hard disk drive 15 storing document information and information of various contents created by a personal computer connected to the external device 22 for preventing theft, and the illegal actor Attempts to read the stored document information and various types of content information by connecting the hard disk drive 15 to his / her personal computer, but since these information are encrypted and stored, they must be decrypted. Can not. Therefore, leakage of information is prevented.

In particular, since the data of the decryption key is present in the ROM 28 of the external device 22 for preventing theft, the personal computer of the wrongdoer located at a place different from the place where the external device 22 for theft prevention is installed cannot receive the decryption key. Cannot be obtained, the information cannot be decrypted, and even if the fraudster can read the encrypted information from the hard disk drive 15, it becomes useless. Therefore, information leakage is substantially prevented.

In this embodiment, the external device 22 for preventing theft and the personal computer are connected by the electric cable 30, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the hard disk control unit 7 and the anti-theft external device 22 are provided with wireless communication circuits for performing two-way wireless communication, and the data of the encryption key and the decryption key is transferred to the personal computer via these wireless communication circuits. May be.

In this embodiment, the anti-theft internal device is provided in the hard disk control unit 7. However, the anti-theft internal device is formed as an independent so-called expansion board.
This expansion board may be connected to a standardized expansion bus such as an ISA bus or a PCI bus provided in the personal computer.

In this embodiment, the case where data and programs stored in the hard disk drive device 15 are protected has been described. However, auxiliary storage devices such as a floppy disk drive device, a CD drive device, and a DVD drive device are also provided. The present invention can be applied.

The external device 22 for preventing theft receives a GPS signal and performs positioning (GPS).
ystem) an encryption key and a decryption key (at least an encryption key) for positioning data measured by the GPS receiver.
May be supplied to a personal computer as a part of the data, and if there is no position data, the personal computer may not be able to encrypt or decrypt information.

Also, the case has been described in which the anti-theft external device 22 is provided with an encryption key and a decryption key, and the personal computer is provided with an encryption algorithm and a decryption algorithm. All of the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm are stored in the ROM 28 of the external device 22 for preventing theft, and when the personal computer operates, these encryption key and the decryption key and the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm are stored in the personal computer. May be transferred to

In this embodiment, an information leakage prevention device applied to a general-purpose personal computer has been described. However, the present invention uses a server system, a so-called word processor (word processor), and other information storage media and information recording media. The present invention can be applied to an electronic device that stores or records information.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, the control means for controlling the storage of information in the information storage means and the reading of information from the information storage means and an external device are provided separately, The device is provided with an encryption key and a decryption key, and the control means receives the supply of the encryption key and the decryption key, and encrypts and decrypts the information based on the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm. Control of the storage of information in the information storage device and the reading of information from the information storage device. If the user tries to obtain information by connecting the information storage means to an electronic device that is not connected, the decryption key provided in the external device cannot be obtained. Can not be decoded information stored Te, it can be prevented substantially information leaks.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example when an information leakage prevention device according to an embodiment is applied to a general-purpose personal computer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information leakage prevention device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of use of the information leakage prevention device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information leakage prevention device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 2 microprocessor 6 input / output controller 7 hard disk controller 15 hard disk drive 22 external device 23 for preventing theft 23, 26 controller 24, 28 ROM 25, 27 I / F circuit 29 fixing member 30 ... Electrical cable

Claims (2)

[Claims] An information storage means provided in an electronic device,
An information leakage prevention device that protects information stored in the information storage unit, wherein when storing the information in the information storage unit, the information is encrypted based on an encryption algorithm and stored in the information storage unit, A control unit for decrypting the read information based on a decryption algorithm when reading the information from the information storage unit; and an external unit for supplying an encryption key for the encryption and a decryption key for the decryption to the control unit. A communication device provided in each of the control device and the external device, wherein the control device is provided in the electronic device provided with the information storage device, and the external device is provided outside the electronic device. Wherein the encryption key and the decryption key are supplied from the external device to the control means via the communication means. 2. The information leakage prevention device according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit is a wired communication unit or a wireless communication unit.