Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Secure Storage Of User Information In A User Profile (USPTO 10,372,733)
2019 AUG 20 (NewsRx) -- By a
The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,372,733 is
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Various embodiments described herein relate generally to the field of electronic management of information, and more particularly to secure storage and protection of user information in a user profile.
“The vision of a paperless modern society is quickly becoming a reality, as more and more communications, services and transactions take place digitally across networks such as the Internet. The need for paper copies of correspondence, financial documents, receipts, contracts and other legal instruments is dwindling as electronic methods for securely transmitting, updating and accessing these documents increases. In addition to the electronic transmission and access to documents and correspondence, the process of electronically submitting information is also commonplace, such as with online shopping or applications for loans, credit cards, health insurance, college or job applications, etc.
“However, much of the information required in these forms is common to other forms, and yet users manually repeat populating the form inputs with the same information over and over again. The ability to collect, organize, update, utilize and reapply the input information required in these electronic documents, forms and applications remains highly difficult. While some applications have been developed to store certain basic information about a user--such as the user’s name, address and financial information--the ability to organize, access and apply this stored information for additional online activities remains very limited, especially when detailed input information and/or computations are required to complete forms such as college applications and family law declarations.
“There are several programs or applications that allow a user to track financial information, budget, forecast, balance spending accounts, etc. While these tools can save time and provide effective tools for budgeting etc., they do not address the numerous circumstances in which a user is required to provide personal information, financial information, forecasts, categorized expenditures, etc., in a specific format or in accordance with specific forms, etc.
“For example, when someone gets divorced, they must provide the court with detailed personal and financial information, both of past records as well as projected needs. This information has to be provided in a very specific state-mandated format using a specific form and it must be updated and submitted to the court at various points during the divorce process, which may last over a long period of time. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates one page of an Income and Expense Declaration that both petitioner and respondent must fill out in a
“Even well-organized, financially savvy users using currently available personal financial software tools find completing and updating these forms to be burdensome, time-consuming, confusing, and susceptible to mistake. The applicable forms and other applicable items require much more than basic financial information. Additionally, there is a significant need to accurately complete these forms, as the forms can obviously have a significant impact on whether the applicant qualifies for financial aid, a loan, etc., or receives a favorable outcome in a divorce or other legal proceeding.
“These same challenges apply to other critical life events, such as applying to, and/or paying for college. The college application process is a high anxiety time for students and very often, their parents. There is a lot of detailed information required to complete college and financial aid applications, including but not limited to essays, transcripts, letters of recommendation, activities, photos, etc. Also, college applications and financial aid opportunities have many different deadlines. It is very difficult to stay organized and keep on top of all the information, deadlines and applications submitted.”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Disclosed herein are systems and methods for securely storing information of a user in a user profile to prevent access to the information and minimize the amount of information disclosed during a security breach. Information pertaining to a user is obtained from one or more sources through electronic means, and the information is then classified into specific categories using field mapping and other techniques, after which it is organized into a user profile and securely stored in a database. The information that is collected and organized may include (but is not limited to) identification and contact information, financial information, health information, education and career information, family information, business information, lifestyle information, and historical information for any of the listed categories. The user profile may be encrypted and stored remotely in a cloud-based system at a remote server, with portions of the profile stored in separate locations with separate encryption to minimize the risk of unauthorized access to one portion of the information. The fields of data in the user profile may also be separately encrypted with separate encryption keys and separately stored in separate data stores, databases, or in separate database tables, to minimize the amount of information which could be disclosed by the unauthorized access to a single encryption key or a single database, or database table.
“In one aspect of the invention, a system for securely storing user information from a user profile comprises: a profile creation unit which creates a user profile of user information including a plurality of fields and a plurality of values for the plurality of fields; wherein the information in the user profile is separated into sections; and wherein the sections are separately stored in separate data stores, databases, or database tables.
“In another aspect of the invention, a method of securely storing user information from a user profile comprises the steps of: creating a user profile of user information including a plurality of fields and a plurality of values for the plurality of fields; separating the information in the user profile into separate sections; and storing the separate sections in separate data stores, databases or database tables.
“Other features and advantages should become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“What is claimed is:
“1. A system for securely storing information, comprising: data storage comprising a plurality of storage locations; a profile creation unit configured to create a user profile comprising user information, the user information including user identifiable information and other information, to be stored in the data storage, wherein the user information includes a plurality of fields and a plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of fields; a logic application server configured to: dissociate the user profile from sections of a file that include other information, disassemble the user profile into a plurality of separate pieces of identity information; and individually encrypt each of the plurality of separate pieces of identity information comprising the user profile using a separate encryption key for each of the separate pieces of identity information, wherein the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of identity information is distributed for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations.
“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage is a single data store and the plurality of storage locations are located on the single data store.
“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the single data store is located with the logic application server.
“4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data storage server configured to distribute each of the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of identity information for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations on physically separate storage devices.
“5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of at least some of the plurality of fields comprises a user identity, a user financial information, a user password, a user address, and a user identification number.
“6. The system of claim 1, wherein: at least some of the plurality of sections comprising the user information include the plurality of values comprising the user information; and at least some of the plurality of sections comprise the corresponding fields comprising the user information.
“7. The system of claim 1, wherein: at least some of the plurality of sections comprising the user information include at least some of the plurality of values and at least some of the plurality of fields corresponding to the plurality of values.
“8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of fields comprising the user information are identified based on information obtained from one or more of an existing electronic form, manual entry by a user, and a third party application interface.
“9. The system of claim 1, a data storage server configured to store each of the plurality of sections in a separate storage location.
“10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data storage server configured to store each encryption key used to encrypt each of the plurality of sections.
“11. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic application server is further configured to: disassemble the sections of the file that include other information into a plurality of separate pieces of other information; and individually encrypt each of the plurality of separate pieces of other information using a separate encryption key for each of the separate pieces of other information, wherein the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of other information is distributed for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations.
“12. A method of securely storing information, comprising: creating, with a profile creation unit, a user profile comprising user information, the user information including user identifiable information and other information, to be stored in data storage comprising a plurality of storage locations, wherein the user information includes a plurality of fields and a plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of fields; dissociating, with a logic application server, the user profile from sections of a file that include other information, disassembling, with a logic application server, the user profile into a plurality of separate pieces of identity information; individually encrypting, with the logic application server, each of the plurality of separate pieces of identity information comprising the user profile using a separate encryption key for each of the separate pieces of identity information; and separately storing each of the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of identity information for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations.
“13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of identity information are stored in separate storage locations in a single data store.
“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the single data store is located with the logic application server.
“15. The method of claim 12, further comprising distributing, with a data storage server, each of the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of identity information for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations on physically separate storage devices.
“16. The method of claim 12, wherein each of at least some of the plurality of fields comprises one of a user identity, a user financial information, a user password, a user address, and a user identification number.
“17. The method of claim 12, wherein: at least some of the plurality of sections comprising the user information include the plurality of values comprising the user information; and at least some of the plurality of sections comprise the corresponding fields comprising the user information.
“18. The method of claim 12, wherein: at least some of the plurality of sections comprising the user information include at least some of the plurality of values and at least some of the plurality of fields corresponding to the plurality of values.
“19. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of sections is stored in a separate storage location.
“20. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing each encryption key used to encrypt each of the plurality of sections.
“21. The method of claim 12, further comprising: disassembling the sections of the file that include other information into a plurality of separate pieces of other information; and individually encrypting each of the plurality of separate pieces of other information using a separate encryption key for each of the separate pieces of other information, wherein the plurality of individually encrypted pieces of other information is distributed for separate storage among the plurality of storage locations.”
For additional information on this patent, see: Eigner,
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