Patent Issued for Secure communication tool for use alongside non-secure communications (USPTO 11799654): Rhinogram Inc.

2023 NOV 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Rhinogram Inc. (Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States) has been issued patent number 11799654, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Ferger, Bo (Lakesite, TN, US), Whelan, Rob (Daniel Island, SC, US).

This patent was filed on April 14, 2021 and was published online on October 24, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “The Apple Corporation recently released a product called Business Chat which allows businesses to chat with consumers through Messages. A different text bubble pallet, such as black and gray and instead of blue, is provided with that product which can indicate the consumer is messaging with a business rather than with an individual. The product hopes to expose advantages of a richer chat experience to businesses without forcing a user to install a different messaging application. The level of security provided by this new product is not known to the applicant.

“Traditionally, if an individual has a Smartphone operating on the iOS platform and leaves that phone unlocked, anyone can pick up that phone and open Messages to then read any of the messages contained therein. Some of those messages may contain personal information such as Protect Health Information (PHI), which is protected under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or other private data desired particularly by businesses and others not to become public. Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text messages, are typically unencrypted at some point during the delivery process, thus rendering an SMS channel insecure.

“There are no access controls once Messages or Messenger is opened. Accordingly, there is a need in the marketplace for making traditionally less secure communication systems more secure, particularly both Facebook and Apple are each believed to have over two billion users.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “It is a present object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved communications tool for use with less secure messaging systems to make at least some messages or communications more secure.

“It is another object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved messaging tool for use with at least one of Messages and Facebook Messenger.

“It is a present object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved messaging tool.

“Within traditionally unsecure environments such as Apple Messages, the applicant has discovered a way to provide for more secure communication preferably achieving at least one if not two if not three of the objectives: (a) providing encryption of data from one user to another, (b) encryption of the data at rest for at least one party, if not both, and/or © access controls as well, preferably while still permitting unsecure communications at the option of the user through the same communication tool.

“Accordingly, in accordance with many embodiments of the present invention, a tool is provided for use such as with the Apple Messages application whereby the tool cooperates with that with system to provide a method of sending and/or receiving encrypted messages from one device to another for encryption. Continued possible encryption on at least one if not both ends can be provided so that stored information at rest is encrypted. Additionally, access controls and/or session rules are preferably provided within the messaging system itself so as to be able to positively identify a particular user and/or to permit access to at least certain messages.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method of secure communication between a first party and a second party configured to exchange secure messages within a less secure messaging system, the less secure messaging system configured to exchange unsecured messages, wherein a secure communication tool is configured to cooperate with the less secure messaging system to enable communication of the secure messages over the less secure messaging system, the method comprising: sending one or more unsecure messages from an electronic device of the second party to an electronic device of the first party; creating, at the electronic device of the second party, a secure message containing at least one portion that is masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party in accordance with the secure communication tool, wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is configured so it cannot be displayed as a readable message by the electronic device of the first party until after the first party has provided an authorization associated with the secure communication tool; and sending the secure message containing the at least one masked portion from the electronic device of the second party to the electronic device of the first party.

“2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is configured so it is not visible on the electronic device of the first party until after the first party has provided the authorization associated with the secure communication tool.

“3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message comprises at least one encrypted portion.

“4. The method of claim 1 where in the at least one masked portion of the secure message is configured to be visible on a screen of the electronic device of the first party but not readable by the first party before the authorization is provided by the first party.

“5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message has an overlay preventing the first party from reading the at least one masked portion of the secure message until after the authorization is provided by the first party and the overlay removed.

“6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is configured to be displayed on a screen of the electronic device of the first party using a different background color than the one or more unsecure messages.

“7. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization is one of a PIN number or a password.

“8. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is stored on a server that is remote from both the electronic device of the first party and the electronic device of the second party.

“9. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of sending the secure message containing the at least one masked portion to a server that is remote from both the electronic device of the first party and the electronic device of the second party.

“10. The method of claim 1 wherein the secure communication tool is configured to cause the at least one masked portion of the secure message to be in an unreadable configuration at the electronic device of the first party if at least one rule is satisfied.

“11. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one rule is selected from the group of the first party’s electronic device logging out, the first party’s electronic device placing a messaging program in a background mode, a set period of time elapsing after the first party’s electronic device receives the authorization from the first party, a set period of time elapsing after a last key entry at the first party’s electronic device, the first party’s electronic device turning off a screen, or the first party’s electronic device ending the messaging program.

“12. The method of claim 1 wherein the less secure messaging system comprises one of Facebook Messenger or Apple Messages.

“13. An electronic device of a second party configured to communicate secure messages to an electronic device of a first party within a less secure messaging system, the less secure messaging system configured to exchange unsecured messages, the electronic device of the second party comprising: a secure communication tool comprising an application configured for use with the less secure messaging system, the secure communication tool configured to cooperate with the less secure messaging system to enable communication of the secure messages over the less secure messaging system, wherein the secure communication tool is configured to create a secure message containing at least one portion that is masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party until after the first party has provided an authorization to enable the at least one masked portion to be displayed as a readable message on the electronic device of the first party; and a messaging program configured to send one or more unsecure messages from the electronic device of the second party to the electronic device of the first party, the messaging program being further configured to cooperate with the secure communication tool to send the secure message containing the at least one masked portion to the electronic device of the first party.

“14. The electronic device of claim 13 wherein the secure communication tool on the electronic device of the second party is configured to create the secure message so it can be processed by a corresponding secure communication tool on the electronic device of the first party.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising software instructions for execution on an electronic device of a first party to implement a secure communication tool, wherein the secure communication tool is configured to cooperate with a less secure messaging system to enable communication of secure messages from a second party to the first party over the less secure messaging system, wherein the secure communication tool, when executed on the electronic device, causes the electronic device to perform the steps of: causing a secure message, which was sent from the second party and received at the electronic device of the first party, to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party, the secure message containing at least one portion that was masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party in accordance with the secure communication tool, wherein the secure message includes the at least one masked portion at the time that the secure message is received at the electronic device of the first party; providing a user interface on the electronic device of the first party to enable the first party to enter an authorization to view the at least one masked portion of the received secure message as a readable message displayed on a screen of the electronic device; receiving the authorization from the first party to view the at least one masked portion of the received secure message as a readable message displayed on the screen of the electronic device; and displaying, after receiving the authorization from the first party, the at least one masked portion of the secure message as a readable message on the screen of the electronic device of the first party.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the secure communication tool is further configured to cause the electronic device of the first party to return the readable message corresponding to the at least one masked portion of the secure message back to an unreadable configuration if at least one rule is satisfied.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 and wherein the at least one rule is selected from the group of logging out, placing a messaging program in a background mode, a set period of time elapsing after receiving the authorization, a set period of time elapsing after a last key entry, turning off the screen, or ending the messaging program.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the authorization is one of a PIN number or a password.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message comprises at least one encrypted portion when the secure message is received at the electronic device of the first party.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable of claim 15 wherein the less secure messaging system comprises one of Facebook Messenger or Apple Messages.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Ferger, Bo. Secure communication tool for use alongside non-secure communications. U.S. Patent Number 11799654, filed April 14, 2021, and published online on October 24, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11799654)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)