Network system for transporting security-protected data

Abstract

A network system with integrated security protection facilities. The system involves a transmission unit and a reception unit, which are coupled to each other via a network. In the transmission unit, a data management unit performs centralized management of source data that is stored in a plurality of storage units in a distributed manner. In response to a data transmission request from a terminal local to the transmission unit, a data collection unit collects requested data items from the data management unit. A security processor applies appropriate security protection processes to the collected data, depending on its data confidentiality level. An identification data attaching unit attaches identification data to the transmission data. This identification data informs the recipient of what sequence of security process primitives has been applied to the source data. A transmitter sends out the security-protected data over the network. In the reception unit, a receiver accepts the data sent from the transmission unit, and an identification data extracting unit extracts the identification data attached to the received data. With this identification data, an unprotection unit unprotects the received data, thereby reconstructing the original data contents.