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Telecommunications

Patent Issued for Apparatus and Method for Encrypting Security Key in Mobile Communication Terminal

2012 AUG 1 (VerticalNews) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Telecommunications Weekly -- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (KR) has been issued patent number 8223971, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews editors.

The patent's inventor is Ahn, Chi-Hun (Hwaseong-si, KR).

This patent was filed on May 3, 2007 and was cleared and issued on July 24, 2012.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: "The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for storing security keys in a mobile communication terminal, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for encrypting and storing security keys in a mobile communication terminal so as to prevent unauthorized use of the security keys.

"In general, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/Global System for Mobile communication (UMTS/GSM) system provides a personalization function for allowing a specific terminal to use only a specific Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card. Examples of the personalization are network personalization, network subset personalization, service provider personalization, corporate personalization, and SIM/USIM (Universal SIM) personalization that are defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

"The personalization function allows a specific terminal to use only a specific SIM card, by using an International Mobile Station Identity (IMSI), a General IDentifier 1 (GID 1) or a GID 2 that is stored in the SIM card.

"When a personalization function is enabled in a mobile communication terminal, the use of a SIM card is restricted. A prestored control key is used to disable the personalization function of the mobile communication terminal, i.e., to remove the restrictions on the use of the SIM card. The control key is randomly generated using the seed of a process program, and the generated control key is stored in the memory of the mobile communication terminal in the form of a decimal number. The seed of the process program is used to randomly generate not only the control key but also security keys that are used for receiving services such as e-mail and mobile banking.

"Recently, hackers have been successful in their attempt to compromise the security of the Internet, thus leading to unauthorized use of the security keys (e.g., control keys) of mobile communication terminals and service providers. Security programs such as the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm, has been developed to prevent the unauthorized use of the security keys.

"A conventional mobile communication terminal generates a security key using the conventional security program and stores the generated security key in its memory. However, the conventional security program merely enhances the security effects on the generation of the security key. Therefore, it is still possible to easily obtain the security key by illegally accessing and dumping the mobile terminal memory. This causes the unauthorized use of the security key and the mobile communication terminal."

Supplementing the background information on this patent, VerticalNews reporters also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "An object of the present invention is to substantially solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages below. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for preventing unauthorized use of a security key in a mobile communication terminal.

"Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for encrypting a security key and storing the encrypted security key in a mobile communication terminal.

"A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for encrypting a security key by orthogonal Walsh code spreading and storing the encrypted security key in a mobile communication terminal.

"According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for storing a security key in a mobile communication terminal, the method includes generating the security key randomly; encrypting the generated security key in a predetermined encryption scheme; and storing the encrypted security key.

"According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for storing a security key in a mobile communication terminal, the apparatus includes a controller for generating the security key randomly and encrypting the generated security key; and a memory unit for storing the encrypted security key.

"According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for storing a control key for disabling personalization in a mobile communication terminal with a SIM card, the method includes randomly generating the control key; encrypting the generated control key; and storing the encrypted control key.

"According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for disabling personalization in a mobile communication terminal with a SIM card, the method includes detecting an encrypted control key that is stored and a character string for Walsh covering; decrypting the encrypted control key using a Walsh code index contained in the character string; comparing the decrypted control key with the control key contained in the character string; and disabling the personalization if the decrypted control key is identical to the control key contained in the character string."

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Ahn, Chi-Hun. Apparatus and Method for Encrypting Security Key in Mobile Communication Terminal. U.S. Patent Number 8223971, filed May 3, 2007, and issued July 24, 2012. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=38&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1888&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20120717.PD.&OS=ISD/20120717&RS=ISD/20120717

Keywords for this news article include: Telecommunications, Information Technology, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, Information and Data Encoding and Encryption.