Information encryption apparatus and controlling method of the same, computer program and computer readable storage medium

Abstract

The present invention stores and manages only one piece of key information even if contents information includes a plurality of partial contents arranged in a sequence, and the partial contents are encrypted with different keys. When a piece of contents information includes four partial contents or divided into four partial contents, a key for each of four node positions is generated through four steps of operations from a key for the top root. Node keys P (i, 1) and P (i, i) at both sides are generated by a one-way function from node keys P (i−1, 1) and P (i−1, i−1) at the upper i−1layer, and a node key P (i, m) (m=2, 3, . . . , i−1) are generated by a one-way function which can generate the keys from any of node keys P (i−1, m−1) and P (i−1, m) at the upper i−1layer, where jnode key at the ilayer is represented as P (i, j) (j=1, 2, . . . , i−1). Then, each of partial contents is encrypted with key information generated at a terminal layer. If only a root key is saved, one encrypting key can be generated for a range of partial contents arranged in a sequence.