Patent Issued for System for improving data security through key management (USPTO 11954230): The Prudential Insurance Company of America

2024 APR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Apsingekar, Venkatesh Sarvottamrao (San Jose, CA, US), Lavine, James Francis (Corte Madera, CA, US), Motadoo, Sahil Vinod (Sunnyvale, CA, US), Schille, Christopher John (San Jose, CA, US), filed on April 12, 2023, was published online on April 9, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11954230, is The Prudential Insurance Company of America (Newark, New Jersey, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Users provide their information (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, etc.) in a variety of contexts (e.g., mortgage applications, credit card applications, financial account applications, air travel ticket orders, medical office visits, etc.). If this information were exposed to or taken by a malicious user, then the malicious user would be able to use this information to impersonate the users to conduct undesired or unwanted transactions.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Users provide information (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, etc.) in a variety of contexts (e.g., mortgage applications, credit card applications, financial account applications, air travel ticket orders, medical office visits, etc.). If this information were exposed to or taken by a malicious user, then the malicious user would be able to use this information to impersonate the users to conduct undesired or unwanted transactions.

“In conventional systems, the users have very little control over this information. The users provide their information to a provider to gain access to goods or services from the provider. The provider maintains the information (e.g., on a server). If that server were to be breached by a malicious user, the information would be exposed to the malicious user. Additionally, some providers even sell the information to other providers, often unbeknownst to the users. This sale and movement of the information further exposes the information to malicious users and lessens the control that the users have over such information.

“This disclosure contemplates an unconventional system for securing information (e.g., a user’s personally identifiable information (PII)). Generally, the system allows the user to store his PII on a personal device, such as a smartphone. When a third party wants to access the user’s PII (e.g., to update the PII or to retrieve the PII), a notification will be presented to the user on the personal device seeking consent to the access. The notification may inform the user as to what information is being requested and which entity is requesting the access. The requested access will be denied unless the user consents to the access. In this manner, the user is given control over the dissemination of his PII. Additionally, the system alters or adjusts the PII that is stored in third-party servers so that even if these servers are breached, the user’s actual PII is not exposed.

“According to an embodiment, a system includes a device of a user and a token handler separate from the device. The device receives personally identifiable information the user and encrypts the personally identifiable information to produce first encrypted personally identifiable information. The token handler receives the first encrypted personally identifiable information from the device of the user, decrypts the first encrypted personally identifiable information to produce the personally identifiable information, generates a token representing the personally identifiable information, and receives the token indicating a request for the personally identifiable information. The device receives consent from the user to provide the personally identifiable information in response to the request for the personally identifiable information, in response to receiving the consent from the user, encrypts the personally identifiable information to produce second encrypted personally identifiable information, and communicates the second encrypted personally identifiable information to the token handler.

“When PII is to be stored or updated, the system first seeks consent from the user for the PII store or update. If the user grants consent, then the system stores the PII in the user’s personal device or updates the PII stored in the user’s personal device. The system then generates a token representing the PII. The token can be presented at a later time to redeem or access the PII, subject to the user’s consent. Even if the token were taken by a malicious user, it would not be possible for the malicious user to determine the user’s actual PII from the token. In this manner, the security of the PII is improved over conventional systems.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A token handler for securing personally identifiable information, the token handler comprising a memory and a hardware processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the hardware processor configured to: generate a set of public encryption keys of the token handler; communicate the set of public encryption keys of the token handler to a data originator; receive, from the data originator, a request to store a user’s personally identifiable information, the request to store comprising a first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using a first public encryption key of the token handler from the set and a second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using a second public encryption key of the token handler from the set; add, to an encryption schedule, an indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key and an indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key; receive, from the data originator, a token indicating a request for redemption of the first and second portions of the user’s personally identifiable information; select, based on the encryption schedule, a first private encryption key of the token handler corresponding to the first public encryption key; decrypt, using the first private encryption key, the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using the first public encryption key to produce the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; select, based on the encryption schedule, a second private encryption key of the token handler corresponding to the second public encryption key; decrypt, using the second private encryption key, the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using the second public encryption key to produce the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; and store a key vault comprising the set of public encryption keys and an ordinal assigned to each key of the set of public encryption keys, wherein the encryption schedule identifies the first public encryption key using the ordinal assigned to the first public encryption key in the key vault.

“2. The token handler of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to: determine that an age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds a predetermined time threshold; in response to determining that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold, generate a second set of public encryption keys of the token handler; encrypt, using a first public encryption key from the second set, the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; encrypt, using a second public encryption key from the second set, the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; and add, to the encryption schedule, an indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key from the second set and an indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key from the second set.

“3. The token handler of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine that an age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds a predetermined time threshold; in response to determining that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold, delete the set of public encryption keys; and remove, from the encryption schedule, the indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key and the indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key.

“4. The token handler of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to: after determining that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold, receive a token indicating a second request for redemption of the first and second portions of the user’s personally identifiable information; and reject the second request based on the determination that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold.

“5. The token handler of claim 1, wherein processor is further configured to: determine that a device separate from the token handler has established a connection with the token handler after receiving the token from the data originator; in response to determining that the device has established the connection, communicate the encryption schedule to the device.

“6. The token handler of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to communicate the set of public encryption keys to the device.

“7. The token handler of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine, based on an ordinal assigned to a key of the set of public encryption keys and on a number of keys in the set of public encryption keys, that an age of the key exceeds a predetermined time threshold.

“8. The token handler of claim 1, wherein the data originator randomly selected the first and second public encryption keys from the set.

“9. A method for securing personally identifiable information, the method comprising: generating, by a token handler, a set of public encryption keys of the token handler; communicating, by the token handler, the set of public encryption keys of the token handler to a data originator; receiving, by the token handler, from the data originator, a request to store a user’s personally identifiable information, the request to store comprising a first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using a first public encryption key of the token handler from the set and a second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using a second public encryption key of the token handler from the set; adding, by the token handler, to an encryption schedule, an indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key and an indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key; receiving, by the token handler, a token indicating a request for redemption of the first and second portions of the user’s personally identifiable information; selecting, by the token handler, based on the encryption schedule, a first private encryption key of the token handler corresponding to the first public encryption key; decrypting, by the token handler, using the first private encryption key, the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using the first public encryption key to produce the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; selecting, by the token handler, based on the encryption schedule, a second private encryption key of the token handler corresponding to the second public encryption key; decrypting, by the token handler, using the second private encryption key, the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information encrypted using the second public encryption key to produce the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; and storing, by the token handler, a key vault comprising the set of public encryption keys and an ordinal assigned to each key of the set of public encryption keys, wherein the encryption schedule identifies the first public encryption key using the ordinal assigned to the first public encryption key in the key vault.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining, by the token handler, that an age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds a predetermined time threshold; in response to determining that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold, generating, by the token handler, a second set of public encryption keys of the token handler; encrypting, by the token handler, using a first public encryption key from the second set, the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; encrypting, by the token handler, using a second public encryption key from the second set, the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information; and adding, by the token handler, to the encryption schedule, an indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key from the second set and an indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key from the second set.

“11. The method of claim 9, further comprising: determining, by the token handler, that an age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds a predetermined time threshold; in response to determining that the age of the set of public encryption keys exceeds the predetermined time threshold, deleting, by the token handler, the set of public encryption keys; and removing, by the token handler, from the encryption schedule, the indication that the first portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the first public encryption key and the indication that the second portion of the user’s personally identifiable information was encrypted using the second public encryption key.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Apsingekar, Venkatesh Sarvottamrao. System for improving data security through key management. U.S. Patent Number 11954230, filed April 12, 2023, and published online on April 9, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11954230)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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