Data and data lineage control, tracking, and verification
Initial data is included in a data structure such as an initial container at an initial entity, along with rules and a data signature of at least a portion of the initial data and other container contents relating to the initial entity and the initial data. Each rule defines at least one condition governing the permissible transfer and processing of the initial data by other entities in a provenance chain. Each receiving entity creates a container of its own to encapsulate received containers, and, after optional processing of its own, such as adding or altering data and rules, digital signature for its container. The digital signatures may be obtained from a hash tree-based signing infrastructure that returns data signatures enabling recomputation of a logically uppermost value of the hash tree. A lineage map of any given container may also be displayed for analysis by a user.
1. A data security method comprising:
initializing an initial data structure having initial contents that include initial data, an initial rules portion indicating at least one condition on subsequent processing of the initial data, and an initial digital signature for at least a portion of the initial contents of the initial data structure that includes at least a portion of the initial data;
obtaining the initial digital signature by submitting the portion of the initial contents as an input record to a hash tree-based signing infrastructure that returns the data signature enabling recomputation of a logically uppermost value of the hash tree; and
transferring the initial data structure from an initial entity to a subsequent entity, said subsequent entity being constrained in processing of the initial data structure by the at least one condition;
in which the digital signature includes recomputation parameters and a calendar value corresponding to a calendar period during which the digital signature was originally computed, such that an arbitrary subsequent test digital record is considered authenticated relative to the original portion of the contents if, using the recomputation parameters to logically recompute a hash tree path upward through the hash tree-based signing infrastructure, the same calendar value is attained as when it was originally computed, said signature thereby being independent of reliance on keys.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising iteratively creating a corresponding data structure and obtaining and storing in the corresponding data structure a corresponding digital signature at each of a plurality of subsequent entities that receive the corresponding data structure from at least one respective previous entity, including the initial entity, such that all data structures and respective digital signatures of all entities in a provenance chain path are encoded and, using their respective digital signatures, verifiable.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising verifying the contents of the data structure of at least one of the entities by recomputation of the calendar value in its respective signature.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising verifying the contents without reference to an external database.
5. The method of claim 1 , in which the at least one condition indicates whether subsequent entries are allowed to add data to any of their data structures that include the initial data.
6. The method of claim 1 , in which the at least one condition indicates which entities may receive any data structure that includes the initial data.
7. The method of claim 1 , in which the at least one condition indicates at least one time limit on when subsequent entities may receive and process any data structure that includes the initial data.
8. The method of claim 1 , in which the at least one condition indicates whether at least one specified processing operation may be carried out.
9. A data security method comprising:
initializing an initial data structure having initial contents that include initial data, an initial rules portion indicating at least one condition on subsequent processing of the initial data, and an initial digital signature for at least a portion of the initial contents of the initial data structure that includes at least a portion of the initial data;
obtaining the initial digital signature by submitting the portion of the initial contents as an input record to a hash tree-based signing infrastructure that returns the data signature enabling recomputation of a logically uppermost value of the hash tree; and
transferring the initial data structure from an initial entity to a subsequent entity, said subsequent entity being constrained in processing of the initial data structure by the at least one condition; and
iteratively creating a corresponding data structure and obtaining and storing in the corresponding data structure a corresponding digital signature at each of a plurality of subsequent entities that receive the corresponding data structure from at least one respective previous entity, including the initial entity, such that all data structures and respective digital signatures of all entities in a provenance chain are encoded and, using their respective digital signatures, verifiable, said provenance chain comprising an ordered set of entities whose data structures have included the initial data.
10. The method of claim 9 , in which, for at least one of the subsequent entities, the data structures of all previous entities are nested within the data structure created by the at least one subsequent entity.
11. The method of claim 9 , in which the data structure of at least one of the subsequent entities comprises data added in addition to the initial data.
12. The method of claim 9 , in which the data structure of at least one of the subsequent entries comprises non-nested information derived from the data structures of a plurality of previous entities.
13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising, in at least one of the subsequent entries, dividing the respective data structure into a plurality of sub-structures, obtaining digital signatures for each sub-structure and transferring the sub-structures, together with their respective digital signatures, to different ones of immediately following entities.
14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising, from the data structure in at least one of the subsequent entries, deleting the data in the data structure of at least one previous entity and obtaining the digital signatures for the data structure of the at least one subsequent entry after such deletion.
15. The method claim 9 , in which
signatures that are generated by the hash-tree based signing infrastructure for digital inputs whose signature computation path passes through at least one computation system that incorporates a respective system identifier into its hashing computations identifiably encode the system identifier; and
the at least one condition specifies whether at least one computation system in the hash-tree based signing infrastructure may or may not participate in generating the digital signature of any of the entities whose data structures include the initial data.
16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising displaying on a display a lineage map, which is a graphical representation of the provenance chain.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising indicating on the displayed lineage map which of the entities represented in the lineage map have digital signatures that correctly correspond to their contents.
18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising sensing user selection of a representation of an entity in the lineage map and displaying for the user a representation of the contents and digital signatures of the data structures included in the selected entity.