Secured System Operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020007342-A1
Application number	US-201816489389-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 8, 2018
Priority date	Mar 10, 2017
Publication date	Jan 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of operating a system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of components, the method comprising: maintaining a distributed ledger, wherein the distributed ledger comprises data records, wherein each data record stores information concerning one or more respective components of the plurality of components; at least one component of the plurality of components processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria; and one or both of: (i) the at least one component performing a respective first action if the at least one component determines that the system meets the one or more respective security criteria; and (ii) the at least one component performing a respective second action if the at least one component determines that the system does not meet the one or more respective security criteria.

First claim

1 . A method of operating a system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of components, the method comprising:
maintaining a distributed ledger, wherein the distributed ledger comprises data records, wherein each data record stores information concerning one or more respective components of the plurality of components; at least one component of the plurality of components processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria; and one or both of:
(i) the at least one component performing a respective first action if the at least one component determines that the system meets the one or more respective security criteria; and
(ii) the at least one component performing a respective second action if the at least one component determines that the system does not meet the one or more respective security criteria.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising the at least one component determining whether or not to perform an operation as part of said operating the system, wherein:
said determining whether or not to perform the operation comprises said processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria; said first action comprises enabling performance of the operation; said second action comprises preventing performance of the operation.

3 . The method of claim 1 or 2 , comprising the at least one component repeatedly performing said processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria according to respective security check timing conditions.

4 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein, for one or more data records of the distributed ledger, the respective information comprises data indicating, for at least one of the respective components, a result of a corresponding integrity check of that component.

5 . The method of claim 4 , comprising, for each of said at least one of the respective components, said component performing said corresponding integrity check.

6 . The method of claim 5 , comprising, for each of said at least one of the respective components, said component repeatedly performing said corresponding integrity check, wherein the data records of the distributed ledger comprise, for each of the integrity checks performed by said component, a corresponding data record that comprises data indicating a result of that integrity check.

7 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, comprising at least one component of the plurality of components updating the one or more respective security criteria based on an analysis of the distributed ledger.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein said updating comprises one or more of:
(a) deleting at least one of the one or more respective security criteria; (b) adding at least one additional security criterion to the one or more respective security criteria; (c) modifying at least one of the one or more respective security criteria; (d) changing the one or more respective security criteria to improve the operational security of the system.

9 . A method of operating a component of a plurality of components of a system, wherein the system maintains a distributed ledger, wherein the distributed ledger comprises data records, wherein each data record stores information concerning one or more respective components of the plurality of components, wherein said method comprises:
said component processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria; and one or both of:
(i) said component performing a respective first action if said component determines that the system meets the one or more respective security criteria; and
(ii) said component performing a respective second action if said component determines that the system does not meet the one or more respective security criteria.

10 . The method of claim 9 , comprising said component determining whether or not to perform an operation as part of operating the system, wherein:
said determining whether or not to perform the operation comprises said processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria; said first action comprises enabling performance of the operation; said second action comprises preventing performance of the operation.

11 . The method of claim 9 or 10 , comprising said component repeatedly performing said processing the information stored in one or more respective data records of the distributed ledger to determine whether the system meets one or more respective security criteria according to respective security check timing conditions.

12 . The method of any one claims 9 to 11 , wherein, for one or more data records of the distributed ledger, the respective information comprises data indicating, for at least one of the respective components, a result of a corresponding integrity check of that component.

13 . The method of any one claims 9 to 12 , comprising updating the one or more respective security criteria based on an analysis of the distributed ledger.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein said updating comprises one or more of:
(a) deleting at least one of the one or more respective security criteria; (b) adding at least one additional security criterion to the one or more respective security criteria; (c) modifying at least one of the one or more respective security criteria; (d) changing the one or more respective security criteria to improve the operational security of the system.

15 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein said second action comprises causing a warning message to be generated.

16 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein said second action comprises preventing the system from carrying out one or more operations that would otherwise be part of said operating the system.

17 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein said first action comprises allowing the system to carry out one or more operations as part of said operating the system.

18 . The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein, for one or more data records of the distributed ledger, the respective information concerning one or more respective components comprises data indicating one or more of:
(a) an identity of at least one of said one or more respective components; (b) a version of at least one of said one or more respective components; (c) a date of installation as part of the system of at least one of said one or more respective components; (d) a date of update of at least one of said one or more respective components; (e) a result of a security test carried out by at least one of said one or more respective components; (f) data relating to the security of the system; (g) data identifying security characteristics of, or identifying security events of, the system; (h) data relating to an operational norm of one or more components of the plurality of components; (i) data relating to performance or operational characteristics of one or more components of the plurality of components.

19 . The method of any one o

Assignees

• Irdeto Bv

Inventors

• Liem Clifford
• O'Connor John

Classifications

• H04L2209/84

  Vehicles · CPC title

• H04L9/0643

  Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC · CPC title

• H04L9/0637

  Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM] · CPC title

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• H04L9/3239 Primary

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title