Shieldip, Inc.

Harvard College

Other

Google Inc.

Michael O Rabin

Dennis E Shasha

Ramon Caceres

David Alexander Molnar

Yossi Beinart

Timir Karia

Sean Rolinson

Christopher A Thorpe

Marcel M Moti Yung

Shanmugavelayutham Muthukrishnan

David Christopher Parkes

Carleton J Bosley

Stuart M Shieber

Aaron Ingram

In one embodiment, a Time-Lapse Cryptography Service is provided based on a network of parties. Senders encrypt their messages with this public key whose secret key is not known to anyone&#x2014;not even a trusted third party&#x2014;until a predefined and specific future time T+.delta., at which point the secret key is constructed and published. In one example, the secret key can only be known after it is constructed. At or after that time, anyone can decrypt the cipher text using this secret key. In one embodiment, a method for cryptographic encoding is provided, including generation of cryptographic key components by a plurality of parties, where participation of the parties is verified. A public key is constructed from a plurality of key components.

Method and apparatus for time-lapse cryptography

A system for protecting software against piracy while protecting a user's privacy enables enhancements to the protection software in a user device and extended protections against piracy. The protection system allows the user device to postpone validation of purchased tags stored in a tag table for installed software and to re-establish ownership of a tag table to recover from invalidation of a tag table identifier value resulting from revelation of a tag table identifier value. Continued use of the tag table is provided by the use of credits associated with a tag table. A protection center is protected against denial of service attacks by making calls to the protection center cost time or money to the attackers.

Method and apparatus for protecting information and privacy

An auction verification subsystem provides verification, without revealing actual bid values, that bid values remained sealed prior to a closing time for the auction and that an announced winning bidder for the auction provided a highest bid. The verification subsystem receives encrypted bids from bidders and generates commitment data based on the bids and provides the commitment data to each of the bidders. In response to receiving the commitment data, the bidders provide decryption keys for the encrypted bids. In turn, the bids are decrypted and an auction is performed using the decrypted bids. The results of the auction can be verified based on bid representations that do not reveal the actual values of bids, thereby maintaining the secrecy of bids. Providing access to an exchange between bidders and the verification subsystem facilitates verification that the auction is performed as a sealed bid auction.

Auction verification

A system and method for conducting verifiably correct auctions that preserves the secrecy of the bids while providing for verifiable correctness and trustworthiness of the auction is disclosed. Some of the elements of the method and apparatus are that the auction operator accepts all bids submitted and follows the published rules of the auction. In one embodiment, the bids are maintained secret from the auctioneer and all bidders until the auction closes and no bidder is able to change or repudiate her bid. In another embodiment, the auction operator computes the auction results and publishes proofs of the results' correctness. In yet another embodiment, any party can check these proofs of correctness via publicly verifiable computations on encrypted bids.

Practical secrecy-preserving, verifiably correct and trustworthy auctions

A mechanism for the purchase of tags for copies of software ensures that identity of the purchaser of a tag table identifier value included in a purchased tag is not revealed. A mechanism of Call-Ups from the user device to a guardian center ensures that each tag table identifier value appears in only one user device and that the data included in a tag table and other data stored in the user device for the purpose of protecting vendor's and owner's rights in software, cannot be modified.

Software is identified while in main memory by examining small portions of its executable image or by examining the results of its execution. These portions, or an encoding of them, are then compared with previously stored identifying information about at least one Software through an approximate matching process.

Detection and identification methods for software

System, methods and apparatus are applicable to enable owners and vendors of software to protect their intellectual property and other rights in that software. The system also enables vendors or distributors of software to charge per-use for an instance of software. The system produces a unique, unforgeable, tag for every vendor supplied instance (copy) of specific software. Each user device is equipped with a supervising program that ensures, by use of the tag and other information, that no software instance will be used on the device in a manner infringing on the vendor, distributor, or software owner's rights. When installing or using a vendor-supplied software instance, the supervising program verifies the associated tag and stores the tag. When installing or using untagged software, the supervising program fingerprints selected portions of the software and stores the fingerprints. Software is used on a user's device through the supervising program which ensures proper use of the software. A vendor can submit a copy of infringing software to a guardian center which fingerprints appropriate portions of the infringing software. A user device's () supervising program periodically calls up, or can be called up, by the guardian center. During call-up, the supervising program can securely sends to the guardian center information about the use of the software instances associated with tags and fingerprints. The guardian center detects unauthorized use of software by comparison of current call-up data with records of past call-ups involving the same tags, and/or by comparing call-up supplied fingerprints with fingerprints of infringing software stored by the guardian center. The guardian center completes the call-up by enabling continued use of properly used software instances and generating appropriate punitive actions upon detection of improperly used software instances on the calling user's device. The data supplied by a supervising program during call-up is also employed by the guardian center to prepare data on usage by a user's device of vendor or distributor supplied software instances, for pay-per-use or pay-per-view billing.

Methods and apparatus for protecting information

A system, method, or apparatus for enabling owners and vendors of software products to protect the property rights of their software. The system and method utilizes a unique vendor tag system for each instant of a specific software product. This system interacts with a monitoring program, which, is running on the user's device to ensure that no unauthorized use takes place.

Method and apparatus applicable to a variety of data storage, data communication, and parallel computing applications, efficiently improving information availability and load balancing. Information to be transmitted in a data signal or stored is represented as N elements of a field or computational structure, and dispersed among a set of n pieces that are to be transmitted or stored in a manner yielding no fewer than m pieces used in subsequent reconstruction. For dispersal, n vectors a.sub.i each having m elements are used and the n pieces are assembled from elements obtained as products of these vectors with m element groups taken from the N elements representing the information. For reconstruction from m available pieces, m m-element vectors .alpha..sub.i are derived from the vectors a.sub.i, and the N elements representing the information are obtained as products of these vectors with m-element groups taken from the pieces. The vector products may be implemented using an appropriate processor, including a vector processor, systolic array, or parallel processor. For fault-tolerant storage in a partitioned or distributed system, information is dispersed into n pieces so that any m suffice for reconstruction, and the pieces are stored in different parts of the medium. For fault-tolerant and congestion-free transmission of packets in a network or a parallel computer, each packet is dispersed into n pieces so that any m pieces suffice for reconstruction and the pieces are routed to the packet's destination along independent paths or at different times.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Michael O Rabin