Patent Application Titled “Information Security By Preventing Unauthorized Data Access” Published Online (USPTO 20220366076): Patent Application

2022 DEC 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Albero, George Anthony (Charlotte, NC, US); Mendu, Madhavi (Edison, NJ, US), filed on May 17, 2021, was made available online on November 17, 2022.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Protecting personal information has become a challenge today. Stolen personal information may be used to commit several types of fraud including opening fraudulent accounts, filing phony health insurance claims, making unauthorized purchases, selling personal information on the dark web and the like. Personal information of users is readily displayed in many user devices. For example, identity cards, driving licenses, credit cards and debit cards display a user’s personal information imprinted on them such as name, age, license number, credit card/debit card number, expiration date and other personal user information. This makes it easy for perpetrators to steal user information from these devices. Even when personal information is encoded (e.g., Quick Response (QR) code, bar code, digital encoding etc.) such that only authorized decoders can decode the information, perpetrators have devised ingenious methods to extract such encoded information.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The system and methods implemented by the system as disclosed in the present disclosure provide technical solutions to the technical problems discussed above by encoding user information such that only authorized decoders can access the encoded user information. The disclosed system and methods provide several practical applications and technical advantages. For example, the disclosed system provides the practical application of protecting user information from theft by encoding the user information in a manner that does not allow extraction of the user information by reading the encoded information alone. As disclosed in the following disclosure, an encoder encodes user information by generating and assigning a random code pattern to the user information associated with each user. Each random code pattern is completely random such that the random code pattern itself does not include any meaningful information. As the code pattern does not include any user information, having access to the code pattern alone is of no use to a perpetrator. This allows the code patterns to be imprinted and displayed on user devices such as identity cards, credit cards and debit cards for ease of reading by an authorized decoder without the fear of data theft.

“The disclosed system provides an additional practical application of providing a highly secure method for decoding encoded user information. For example, as disclosed in the following disclosure, a personal identifier is assigned to a user which acts as a key to decoding a random code pattern that encodes the user information. An authorized decoder must obtain the personal identifier from the user and query a mapping table based on a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user in order to access the user information. The personal identifier adds another layer of security to the randomness of the code pattern. Thus, disclosed system and methods implemented by system as discussed herein provide a high degree of information security.

“In one or more embodiments, an encoder generates a random, assigns the random code pattern to a user and assigns a personal identifier of the user to the random code pattern. The encoder maps a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier to user information associated with the user and stores an association of the random code pattern and the personal identifier to the user information in a mapping table. In some cases, the encoder may receive from a decoder a query comprising the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user, wherein the decoder is configured to decode the random code pattern. The encoder determines based on the mapping table, the user information mapped to the combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier and transmits the user information to the decoder.

“In one or more embodiments, a decoder obtains a random code pattern from at least one of a card or a device owned by a user. The decoder further obtains a personal identifier from the user. The decoder then queries a mapping table based on a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user, wherein the mapping table comprises user information associated with each of a plurality of users mapped to a respective unique combination of a random code pattern and a personal identifier of the user. The decoder obtains user information of the user in response to the query, wherein one or more actions are performed based on the user information.

“Certain aspects of the present disclosure may include some, all, or none of these advantages. These advantages and other features will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A decoder comprising: at least one processor configured to: obtain a random code pattern from at least one of a card or a device owned by a user; obtain a personal identifier of the user; query a mapping table based on a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user, wherein the mapping table comprises user information associated with each of a plurality of users mapped to a respective unique combination of a random code pattern and a personal identifier of the user; and obtain user information of the user in response to the query, wherein one or more actions are performed based on the user information; and a memory coupled to the at least one processor and configured to store one or more of the obtained random code pattern, the personal identifier and the user information.

“2. The decoder of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to query the mapping table by: generating a query including the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; transmitting the query to a central repository storing the mapping table; and receiving the user information of the user from the central repository, in response to transmitting the query.

“3. The decoder of claim 1, wherein: the memory is further configured to store the mapping table; and the at least one processor is further configured to: search the mapping table for the user information associated with the combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; and determine the user information based on the search.

“4. The decoder of claim 1, wherein the random code pattern comprises one or more of numbers, letters, alphanumeric characters, a Quick Response (QR) code pattern, a bar code pattern, pictures, shapes, images, special characters and combinations thereof

“5. The decoder of claim 1, wherein: the random code pattern is imprinted on one or more of a credit card, a debit card, an identity card and a device owned by the user; and the at least one processor is configured to read the imprinted random code pattern using one or more of a camera, an infrared scanner, a barcode scanner, a Quick Response (QR) code scanner and a combination thereof.

“6. The decoder of claim 1, wherein: the random code pattern is stored in a memory of an electronic device owned by the user; and the at least one processor is configured to receive the random code pattern from the electronic device using an electronic communication interface.

“7. The decoder of claim 1, wherein the personal identifier of the user comprises one or more of numbers, alphabets, alphanumeric characters and special characters.

“8. The decoder of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to obtain the personal identifier from the user typed on a keypad interface or receive the personal identifier from an electronic device owned by the user using an electronic communication interface.

“9. The decoder of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions comprises one or more of validating the user, authorizing a payment for the user and a combination thereof.

“10. A method for decoding a random code pattern by a decoder, comprising: obtaining the random code pattern from at least one of a card or a device owned by a user; obtaining a personal identifier of the user; querying a mapping table based on a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user, wherein the mapping table comprises user information associated with each of a plurality of users mapped to a respective unique combination of a random code pattern and a personal identifier of the user; and obtaining user information of the user in response to the query, wherein one or more actions are performed based on the user information.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein querying the mapping table comprises: generating a query including the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; transmitting the query to a central repository storing the mapping table; and receiving the user information of the user from the central repository, in response to transmitting the query.

“12. The method of claim 10, wherein a memory device at the decoder is configured to store the mapping table; the method further comprising: searching the mapping table stored in the memory for the user information associated with the combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; and determining the user information based on the search.

“13. The method of claim 10, wherein: the random code pattern is imprinted on one or more of a credit card, a debit card, an identity card and a device owned by the user; and the imprinted random code pattern is read using one or more of a camera, an infrared scanner, a barcode scanner, a Quick Response (QR) code scanner and a combination thereof.

“14. The method of claim 10, wherein: the random code pattern is stored in a memory of an electronic device owned by the user; and the random code pattern is received from the electronic device using an electronic communication interface.

“15. The method of claim 10, wherein the personal identifier is obtained from the user typed on a keypad interface or received from an electronic device owned by the user using an electronic communication interface.

“16. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more actions comprises one or more of validating the user, authorizing a payment for the user and a combination thereof.

“17. A computer-readable medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor perform a method for decoding a random code pattern by a decoder, the method comprising: obtaining the random code pattern from at least one of a card or a device owned by a user obtaining a personal identifier of the user; querying a mapping table based on a combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user, wherein the mapping table comprises user information associated with each of a plurality of users mapped to a respective unique combination of a random code pattern and a personal identifier of the user; and receiving user information of the user in response to the query, wherein one or more actions are performed based on the user information.

“18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein querying the mapping table comprises: generating a query including the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; transmitting the query to a central repository storing the mapping table; and receiving the user information of the user from the central repository, in response to transmitting the query.

“19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein a memory device at the decoder is configured to store the mapping table; further comprising instructions for: searching the mapping table stored in the memory for the user information associated with the combination of the random code pattern and the personal identifier of the user; and determining the user information based on the search.

“20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more actions comprises one or more of validating the user, authorizing a payment for the user and a combination thereof.”

For more information, see this patent application: Albero, George Anthony; Mendu, Madhavi. Information Security By Preventing Unauthorized Data Access. Filed May 17, 2021 and posted November 17, 2022.

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