JP7618979B2 - Information processing device, information processing system, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing system, and a program.

Patent Document 1 discloses an authority delegation system that enables a user who uses a storage medium to appropriately delegate authority from other users by storing authority delegation information related to the authority delegated to the user by the other users in the storage medium that stores information that can verify the identity of the user.

JP 2009-205342 A

The object of the present invention is to provide an information processing device, information processing system, and program that can restrict the execution of authentication processing using authentication information when another user performs authentication processing on behalf of a user who is in a remote location using the authentication information of the user.

[Information processing device]
The present invention according to claim 1 comprises a memory and a processor,
The processor,
When acquiring authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line, restriction information for restricting use of the authentication information is acquired;
When a condition for using the authentication information is such that the use of the authentication information is not restricted by the restriction information, control is performed so as to permit a user other than the user to execute a proxy authentication process on an authentication device using the authentication information , for the user who is using the device ;
storing the acquired authentication information and restriction information in a memory;
The information processing device switches the state of the authentication information stored in the memory from a valid state to an invalid state, or from the invalid state to the valid state, based on an instruction from a user at a remote location.

In the present invention according to claim 2, when the processor obtains authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line, the processor obtains information indicating a user who is permitted to use the authentication information,
The information processing device of claim 1 is configured to identify a user who is attempting to use the authentication information, and if the identified user matches a user who is authorized to use the authentication information, control is performed to allow the user using the device to perform proxy authentication processing by a user other than the user using the authentication device using the authentication information.

The present invention according to claim 3 is an information processing device according to claim 2, in which the processor identifies a user who is attempting to use the authentication information by requesting a login process from the user who is attempting to use the device.

In the present invention according to claim 4, the processor acquires, as the restriction information, information on an upper limit of a period during which the authentication information can be used or an upper limit of the number of times the authentication information can be used,
2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the authentication information is invalidated after the period has elapsed or when the number of uses has reached an upper limit.

The present invention according to a fifth aspect is the information processing apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the restriction information includes information for restricting functions available after authentication processing.

The present invention according to a sixth aspect is the information processing device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the processor displays information on a state of the acquired authentication information on a display unit.

[program]
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for obtaining authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining restriction information for restricting use of the authentication information;
When a condition for using the authentication information is such that the use of the authentication information is not restricted by the restriction information, a control step is performed to permit a user other than the user to execute a proxy authentication process on an authentication device using the authentication information , for the user who is using the device ;
storing the acquired authentication information and restriction information in a memory;
and switching the state of the authentication information stored in the memory from a valid state to an invalid state, or from the invalid state to the valid state , based on instructions from a user at a remote location.

According to the present invention relating to claim 1, it is possible to provide an information processing device that is capable of restricting the execution of authentication processing using authentication information when another user performs authentication processing on behalf of a user who is in a remote location using the authentication information of the user.
Furthermore, according to the present invention as set forth in claim 1, it is possible to validate or invalidate the authentication information without transferring or deleting the entire authentication information.

According to the present invention as set forth in claim 2, when another user performs authentication processing on behalf of a user who is in a remote location using the authentication information of the user, it is possible to restrict the users who can use the authentication information.

According to the present invention related to claim 3, the user who uses the authentication information can be identified by using the login process.

According to the present invention as set forth in claim 4, when another user performs authentication processing on behalf of a remote user using the authentication information of the remote user, the number of times the authentication information can be used can be limited.

According to claim 5 of the present invention, when the authentication process is performed using the authentication information, the available functions can be restricted.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to know whether the authentication information is valid or not simply by looking at the display unit of the device itself.

According to the present invention related to claim 7 , it is possible to provide a program that can restrict the execution of authentication processing using authentication information when another user performs authentication processing on behalf of a user who is in a remote location using the authentication information of the user.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, it is possible to validate or invalidate the authentication information without transferring or deleting the entire authentication information.

1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 10 is a diagram for explaining how users A and B execute authentication processing on a multifunction device 20. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a specific method of proxy authentication using a mobile terminal 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a mobile terminal 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a mobile terminal 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of restriction information. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing examples of display screens when a user who wishes to perform proxy authentication performs a login process on the mobile terminal 10. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of the mobile terminal 10 when a message is displayed on the display unit 32 indicating that the authentication information has been validated and the authority of user A has been transferred. FIG. 11 is a sequence chart for explaining the transmission and reception of information between a terminal device 60, a mobile terminal 10, and a multifunction device 20 when confirming with a user A whether or not the authentication information can be used when proxy authentication is performed. 1 is a diagram showing a state of a mobile terminal 10 in a case where exclusive control is performed when authentication information of a plurality of users is written to the mobile terminal 10. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the state of a mobile terminal 10 in the case where last priority control is performed when authentication information of a plurality of users is written to the mobile terminal 10. FIG.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows the system configuration of an information processing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, an information processing system according to one embodiment of the present invention is configured such that a terminal device 60 of a telework user who works from home and a mobile terminal 10 used in an office are interconnected via a wireless LAN terminal 70, the Internet 50, a router 30, an internal company network, and a wireless LAN terminal 40.

The mobile terminal 10 is an information processing device such as a smartphone that can be connected to a wireless LAN terminal 40 via a wireless communication line such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark).

The information processing system shown in FIG. 1 shows a situation in which user A telecommutes from home. In addition, it will be explained that user A entrusts his/her mobile terminal 10 to user B who works in an office when telecommuting. In other words, user B has been delegated authority by user A, who is not working in the office, and holds the mobile terminal 10 as a proxy for user A.

The multifunction device 20 is connected to the in-house network in the office. The multifunction device 20 is an image forming device that has multiple functions, such as printing, scanning, copying, and facsimile functions.

The multifunction device 20 is installed in an office and is used by many users. However, due to the increasing awareness of security in recent years, each user must perform an authentication process before they can use the various functions of the multifunction device 20. When performing this authentication process, an IC card such as an employee ID card is touched to the IC card reader of the multifunction device 20, whereby the authentication information stored in the IC card is read out and the authentication process is performed to identify the user. This IC card has the function of transmitting and receiving data between external communication devices using information written in the built-in IC chip via short-range wireless communication known as NFC (short for Near Field Communication).

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, user A touches his/her IC card 80A to the IC card reader of multifunction device 20 to be authenticated as user A, and user B touches his/her IC card 80B to the IC card reader of multifunction device 20 to be authenticated as user B.

By implementing this type of authentication control, it is possible to realize a function that allows only print jobs transferred by the user from a personal computer, etc., or a function that restricts the services available to each user, such as allowing some users to print in color while others can only print in black and white. Furthermore, with this type of authentication control, it is possible to realize various functions such as setting an upper limit on the number of copies per month for each user, tallying up usage records such as the number of copies per organization, and automatically setting up a fax address book for each user and an email address to which scanned data is to be sent, etc.

However, as described above, there are cases where a telework user who works from home wants to use the multifunction device 20 installed in the office. For example, there are cases where a user wants to scan a document using the multifunction device 20 and have the scanned digitized data sent to User A's email address.

In such a case, if user A's IC card 80A is given to user B who works in the office, user B can execute the authentication process on behalf of user A. However, if IC card 80A also serves as user A's employee ID card, lending one's employee ID card to another person is problematic. Furthermore, if user A's IC card 80A is given to user B, all functions can be used without restriction, which creates the problem that user B can use the card to an extent that user A did not intend.

In this embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 shown in FIG. 1 is used in place of the IC card 80A, and the following control is performed to restrict the execution of authentication processing using authentication information when another user B performs authentication processing on behalf of user A, using the authentication information of user A who is in a remote location. Note that hereinafter, authentication processing performed by another user using the authentication information of a certain user is referred to as proxy authentication.

A specific method of proxy authentication using the mobile terminal 10 of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, user A operates the terminal device 60 to write user A's authentication information to the mobile terminal 10, thereby transferring authority to user B. User B then touches the mobile terminal 10, in which user A's authentication information has been written, to the IC card reader of the multifunction device 10, thereby performing proxy authentication to log in as user A.

In this way, user B can perform proxy authentication on the multifunction device 20 as user A, thereby enabling him or her to carry out various operations requested by user A.

However, when user A writes authentication information to the mobile terminal 10, restriction information for restricting the use of this authentication information is also written to the mobile terminal 10 at the same time. Therefore, the proxy authentication of user A performed by user B using the authentication information written to the mobile terminal 10 is restricted within the scope of this restriction information. Details of this restriction information will be described later.

Here, it has been described that the authority of user A is transferred by writing the authentication information of user A to the mobile terminal 10. However, in the following description of this embodiment, it is described that the authentication information of user A is stored in advance in the mobile terminal 10. In this case, when user A transfers the authority of user A to user B, user A accesses the mobile terminal 10 from the terminal device 60 and enables the stored authentication information to be used. Then, when the transferred authority is to be invalidated, user A accesses the mobile terminal 10 from the terminal device 60 and invalidates the valid authentication information. However, user A may transfer the authority of user A to user B or invalidate the transferred authority by actually transferring the authentication information from the terminal device 60 to the mobile terminal 10 or actually deleting the authentication information stored in the mobile terminal 10.

Next, the hardware configuration of the mobile terminal 10 in the information processing system of this embodiment is shown in Figure 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 10 has a CPU 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13 such as a flash memory, a communication interface (abbreviated as IF) 14 that transmits and receives data to and from external devices via a network, and a user interface (abbreviated as UI) device 15 such as a touch panel or liquid crystal display. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 16.

The CPU 11 is a processor that controls the operation of the mobile terminal 10 by executing a predetermined process based on a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13. Note that in this embodiment, the CPU 11 is described as reading and executing a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13, but it is also possible to store the program on a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and provide it to the CPU 11.

Figure 5 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the mobile terminal 10 that is realized by executing the above control program.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mobile terminal 10 of this embodiment includes an operation input unit 31, a display unit 32, a data acquisition unit 33, a control unit 34, and a data storage unit 35.

The display unit 32 is controlled by the control unit 34 and displays various information to the user. The operation input unit 31 inputs various operation information performed by the user.

The data acquisition unit 33 transmits and receives data to and from external devices via wireless communication lines to acquire various types of information.

The control unit 34 controls the overall operation of the mobile terminal 10. The data storage unit 35 stores various data, such as data acquired by the data acquisition unit 33.

When the data acquisition unit 33 acquires the authentication information of user A who is in a remote location at home from the external device terminal device 60 via a wireless communication line such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark), the data acquisition unit 33 acquires restriction information for restricting the use of the authentication information. The authentication information and restriction information acquired by the data acquisition unit 33 are stored in the data storage unit 35.

This authentication information is composed of, for example, a login ID and a password, and is information required when performing authentication processing in the multifunction device 20. The restriction information is information that sets restrictions for restricting the use of the authentication information, and is configured, for example, as shown in FIG. 6.

In the example of restriction information shown in FIG. 6, the restriction items include authorized users, usable period, number of times usable, usable functions, and whether confirmation is required at authentication. In the example of restriction information shown in FIG. 6, user B is set as the authorized user, meaning that user B is the only user permitted to use the authentication information. Furthermore, one day is set as the usable period, meaning that the period during which the authentication information can be used is within one day after this authentication information becomes valid. Furthermore, ten times is set as the number of times it can be used, meaning that the authentication process using this authentication information can be executed up to ten times.

Furthermore, in the example of restriction information shown in Figure 6, the available functions for copying, scanning, faxing, and printing are set as usable, unusable, usable, and usable, respectively. This means that when authentication is performed using this authentication information, the copying, faxing, and printing functions can be used, but the scanning function cannot be used.

Furthermore, in the example of restriction information shown in FIG. 6, the question of whether confirmation is required during authentication is set to "not required," which means that when using this authentication information to perform authentication processing and use the functions of multifunction device 20, there is no need to confirm with user A, who is the owner of the authentication information.

Then, if the conditions for using the authentication information are such that the use of the authentication information is not restricted by the restriction information, the control unit 34 controls to permit the execution of authentication processing using the authentication information.

For example, when the data acquisition unit 33 acquires authentication information of user A at home from an external device via a communication line, it acquires information indicating users who are permitted to use the authentication information as restriction information.

The control unit 34 then identifies the user who is attempting to use the authentication information, and if the identified user matches a user authorized to use the authentication information, controls the system to permit the execution of authentication processing using the authentication information.

Specifically, the control unit 34 requests a login process from a user who is attempting to use the device, thereby identifying the user who is attempting to use the authentication information stored in the data storage unit 35.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the control unit 34 requests a login process from the user attempting to perform proxy authentication, and only when the logged-in user is user B, validates the authentication information and permits proxy authentication. Here, when the logged-in user is user C, who is not permitted, the control unit 34 does not validate the authentication information and leaves it in an invalid state.

When it is confirmed that the logged-in user is User B, the control unit 34 displays on the display unit 32, as shown in FIG. 8, that the authentication information has been validated and that User A's authority has been transferred.

In this way, the control unit 34 may display information regarding the status of the acquired authentication information on the display unit 32.

Furthermore, if the control unit 34 acquires information on the period during which the authentication information can be used or the maximum number of times it can be used as restriction information, it invalidates the authentication information after the period has elapsed or when the maximum number of times it can be used has been reached.

For example, if the period during which the authentication information can be used is one day, the control unit 34 invalidates the authentication information that was valid when one day has passed since the authentication information was acquired. Also, if the upper limit on the number of times that the authentication information can be used is 10 times, the control unit 34 invalidates the authentication information that was valid when the number of proxy authentications performed using the authentication information reaches 10 times.

Furthermore, if the restriction information includes information for restricting the functions available after the authentication process, the control unit 34 transfers information about the functions available when performing proxy authentication to the multifunction device 20. As a result, the multifunction device 20 allows only the functions that are set as available. For example, if the restriction information allows only copying, faxing, and printing, and disables scanning, as shown in FIG. 6, the multifunction device 20 that has been authenticated using this authentication information allows only copying, faxing, and printing, and disables scanning.

In the mobile terminal 10 of this embodiment, the authentication information of user A is pre-stored in the data storage unit 35. Then, the control unit 34 switches the state of the authentication information stored in the data storage unit 35 between a valid state and an invalid state based on an instruction from user A who is in a remote location.

In the above explanation, user B can execute various functions of the multifunction device 20 within the scope of the restriction information by performing authentication processing of the multifunction device 20 using the mobile terminal 10 with the authentication information activated. However, there is a possibility that the mobile terminal 10 with the authentication information activated may be used in a range not intended by user A. Therefore, when authenticating the multifunction device 20 using the mobile terminal 10, confirmation is requested from user A, and proxy authentication by the mobile terminal 10 may be enabled only if user A gives permission.

Specifically, in the restriction information shown in FIG. 6, the confirmation requirement at the time of authentication is set to "required," and when it is set that confirmation must be made with user A, the owner of the authentication information, when using the functions of the multifunction device 20 by performing authentication processing using this authentication information, the above-mentioned control is performed. The following describes the case where such control is performed.

In this case, when the data acquisition unit 33 acquires the authentication information of user A who is in a remote location from an external device via a communication line, the data acquisition unit 33 acquires the authentication information together with information indicating that the authentication information is a duplicate.

Then, when the control unit 35 executes the authentication process using this authentication information, it presents the authentication information including information indicating that the authentication information is a duplicate to the multifunction device 20. Note that in this embodiment, a case is described in which the multifunction device 20 is used as an authentication device that executes the authentication process, but similar control can be realized with any authentication device that executes the authentication process based on the presented authentication information.

Then, when the multifunction device 20 acquires authentication information from the mobile terminal 10 and performs authentication processing, if the acquired authentication information contains information indicating that the authentication information is a duplicate, the multifunction device 20 checks with user A, the owner of the authentication information, as to whether the authentication information can be used, and if it receives a response indicating that the use of the authentication information is permitted, it performs authentication processing using the authentication information.

The transmission and reception of information between the terminal device 60, the mobile terminal 10, and the multifunction device 20 when such processing is performed will be described with reference to the sequence chart in Figure 9.

First, in step S101, when the mobile terminal 10 presents authentication information to the multifunction device 20 and requests authentication processing, it also presents information indicating that the authentication information is a copy.

Then, in step S102, the multifunction device 20 sends a notification to the terminal device 60 of user A, who is the owner of the authentication information, to confirm whether or not it is okay to perform proxy authentication using the copied authentication information.

Then, in step S103, if the terminal device 60 replies to the multifunction device 20 in response to the confirmation notification from the multifunction device 20 that proxy authentication is permitted, the multifunction device 20 executes authentication processing using this authentication information in step S104.

By using this type of control, if user A, who receives a confirmation notification from multifunction device 20, becomes suspicious because he or she did not request proxy authentication and does not reply to the effect that proxy authentication is permitted, proxy authentication will not be performed on multifunction device 20.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above, the case where authentication information of user A is written to the mobile terminal 10 and used is described, but it is also possible to write authentication information of multiple users to the mobile terminal 10 and use it.

For example, the authentication information of user A and user C may be written to the mobile terminal 10, and user B may use the mobile terminal 10 to perform proxy authentication.

However, in such a case, if authentication information for multiple users is written or activated at the same time, the multifunction device 20 will not know which authentication information to use to execute the authentication process. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the authentication information written or activated in the mobile terminal 10 to that of a single user.

To achieve these conditions, the mobile terminal 10 must either implement exclusive control, which, when a user's authentication information has been written, refuses to write other users' authentication information until that authentication information has been erased, or implement priority control, which, when a user's authentication information has already been written and another user's authentication information is written, gives priority to the authentication information written last and erases the older authentication information.

Figure 10 shows the state of the mobile terminal 10 when such exclusive control is performed.

In the case shown in FIG. 10, when user A writes authentication information to the mobile terminal 10 at time T1, which is in an invalid state where no authentication information has been written, the authentication information of user A is written to the mobile terminal 10. Then, when user C writes authentication information at time T2 in this state, the writing of authentication information by user C is rejected because the authentication information of user A has already been written.

As a result, if user B subsequently uses the mobile terminal 10 to perform authentication processing on the multifunction device 20, the authentication processing will be performed with the authority of user A.

Then, when user A erases the authentication information at time T3, the authentication information of user A stored in the mobile terminal 10 is deleted, and the mobile terminal 10 enters an invalid state in which no authentication status is written.

Next, Figure 11 shows the state of the mobile terminal 10 when the priority control described above is performed.

In the case shown in FIG. 11, when user A writes authentication information to the mobile terminal 10 at time T1, which is in an invalid state where no authentication information has been written, the authentication information of user A is written to the mobile terminal 10. Then, when user C writes authentication information at time T2 in this state, the authentication information of user A has already been written, but due to subsequent priority control, the authentication information written by user C is written and the authentication information of user A is deleted.

As a result, if user B subsequently uses the mobile terminal 10 to perform authentication processing on the multifunction device 20, the authentication processing will be performed with the authority of user C.

Then, when user C erases the authentication information at time T3, the authentication information of user C stored in the mobile terminal 10 is deleted, and the mobile terminal 10 enters an invalid state in which no authentication status is written.

By implementing the above-mentioned control, even if authentication information for multiple users is written to one mobile terminal 10, the valid authentication information will belong to only one user.

In each of the above embodiments, the term "processor" refers to a processor in a broad sense, including general-purpose processors (e.g., CPU: Central Processing Unit, etc.) and dedicated processors (e.g., GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit, FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array, programmable logic device, etc.).

In addition, the processor operations in each of the above embodiments may not only be performed by a single processor, but may also be performed by multiple processors located at physically separate locations working together. Furthermore, the order of each processor operation is not limited to the order described in each of the above embodiments, and may be changed as appropriate.

[Variations]
In the above embodiment, the authentication process for the multifunction device 20 is performed using authentication information for each user. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be similarly applied to cases where authentication processes are performed for various authentication devices that require authentication processes when used.

10 Mobile terminal 11 CPU
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 12 Memory 13 Storage device 14 Communication interface 15 User interface device 16 Control bus 20 Multifunction device 30 Router 31 Operation input unit 32 Display unit 33 Data acquisition unit 34 Control unit 35 Data storage unit 40 Wireless LAN terminal 50 Internet 60 Terminal device 70 Wireless LAN terminal 80A, 80B IC card

Claims (7)

It has memory and a processor.
The processor,
When acquiring authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line, restriction information for restricting use of the authentication information is acquired;
When a condition for using the authentication information is such that the use of the authentication information is not restricted by the restriction information, control is performed so as to permit a user other than the user to execute a proxy authentication process on an authentication device using the authentication information , for the user who is using the device ;
storing the acquired authentication information and restriction information in a memory;
switching a state of the authentication information stored in the memory from a valid state to an invalid state, or from an invalid state to a valid state , based on an instruction from a user at a remote location;
Information processing device. When acquiring authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line, the processor acquires information indicating a user who is permitted to use the authentication information;
An information processing device as described in claim 1, which identifies a user who is attempting to use the authentication information, and if the identified user matches a user who is authorized to use the authentication information , controls the device to allow a user other than the user to perform proxy authentication processing on the authentication device using the authentication information. The information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the processor identifies a user who is attempting to use the authentication information by requesting a login process from the user who is attempting to use the device. The processor acquires, as the restriction information, information on a period during which the authentication information can be used or an upper limit on the number of times the authentication information can be used;
2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the authentication information is invalidated after the period has elapsed or when the number of uses has reached an upper limit. The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the restriction information includes information for restricting functions available after authentication processing. The information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the processor displays information regarding the state of the acquired authentication information on a display unit. acquiring restriction information for restricting use of the authentication information when acquiring the authentication information of a user at a remote location from an external device via a communication line;
When a condition for using the authentication information is such that the use of the authentication information is not restricted by the restriction information, a control step is performed to permit a user other than the user to execute a proxy authentication process on an authentication device using the authentication information , for the user who is using the device ;
storing the acquired authentication information and restriction information in a memory;
switching a state of the authentication information stored in the memory from a valid state to an invalid state, or from the invalid state to the valid state , based on an instruction from a user at a remote location;
A program for causing a computer to execute the following.

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