US-12627499-B2 - Secure communication tool for use alongside non-secure communications

Abstract

A method of communicating through a less secure messaging system provides an option of masking messages sent from a second party to a first party so that they are unreadable when received by the first party. For some embodiments, it may be that they are visible, but unreadable, other embodiments, not visible. In either case, an authorization may be provided by the first party to make the masked messages readable messages, for many embodiments until a session rule makes the readable message a masked message again.

Inventors

• Bo Ferger
• Rob Whelan

Assignees

• RHINOGRAM INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20240913

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method of secure communication between a first party and a second party configured to exchange secure messages within a less secure messaging system, the less secure messaging system configured to exchange unsecured messages, wherein a secure communication tool is configured to cooperate with the less secure messaging system to enable communication of the secure messages over the less secure messaging system, the method comprising: sending one or more unsecure messages from an electronic device of the second party to an electronic device of the first party; creating, at the electronic device of the second party, a secure message containing at least one portion that is masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party, wherein the at least one portion is masked using the secure communication tool, and wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is not visible on the electronic device of the first party until after the first party has provided an authorization associated with the secure communication tool; and sending the secure message containing the at least one masked portion from the electronic device of the second party to: (i) the electronic device of the first party; and (ii) a server that is remote from both the electronic device of the first party and the electronic device of the second party.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is configured to be visible on a screen of the electronic device of the first party but not readable by the first party before the authorization is provided by the first party.
3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message comprises an overlay preventing the first party from reading the at least one masked portion of the secure message until the authorization is provided by the first party and the overlay removed.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device of the second party comprises a secure send key and a normal send key, wherein the normal send key is configured to cause the electronic device of the second party to send less secure messages to the electronic device of the first party, and wherein the secure send key is configured to cause the electronic device of the second party to send the secure message containing the at least one masked portion to the electronic device of the first party and to the remote server.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote server is configured to send the secure message containing the at least one masked portion to the electronic device of the first party.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the remote server is configured to store the at least one masked portion of the secure message in an encrypted form.
7. 7 . A method of secure communication between a first party and a second party configured to exchange secure messages within a less secure messaging system, the less secure messaging system configured to exchange unsecured messages, wherein a secure communication tool is configured to cooperate with the less secure messaging system to enable communication of the secure messages over the less secure messaging system, the method comprising: receiving one or more unsecure messages sent from an electronic device of the second party at an electronic device of the first party; displaying the one or more unsecured messages on a screen of the electronic device of the first party; receiving, at the electronic device of the first party, a secure message sent from the electronic device of the second party, the secure message containing at least one portion that is masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party in accordance with the secure communication tool, wherein the secure message has been sent by the electronic device of the second party to both: (i) the electronic device of the first party, and (ii) a server remote from both the electronic device of the first party and the electronic device of the second party; receiving, at the electronic device of the first party, an authorization from the first party to view the at least one masked portion of the secure message as a readable message displayed on the screen of the electronic device of the first party; retrieving, by the electronic device of the first party, the at least one masked portion of the secure message from the remote server; and displaying, after receiving the authorization from the first party and retrieving the at least one masked portion of the secure message from the remote server, the at least one masked portion of the secure message as a readable message on the screen of the electronic device of the first party.
8. 8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of retrieving the at least one masked portion of the secure message from the remote server further comprises retrieving the secure message from the remote server.
9. 9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the secure communication tool is configured to cause the at least one masked portion of the secure message to return to an unreadable configuration at the electronic device of the first party if at least one rule is satisfied.
10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the at least one rule is selected from the group of the first party's electronic device logging out, the first party's electronic device placing a messaging program in a background mode, a set period of time elapsing after the first party's electronic device receives the authorization from the first party, a set period of time elapsing after a last key entry at the first party's electronic device, the first party's electronic device turning off a screen, or the first party's electronic device ending the messaging program.
11. 11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the secure communication tool is configured to remove the secure message from the electronic device of the first party if the at least one rule is satisfied.
12. 12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising a step of receiving, for a second time at the electronic device of the first party, the authorization from the first party to display the at least one masked portion of the secure message as a readable message on the screen of the electronic device of the first party.
13. 13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising a step of retrieving, for a second time by the electronic device of the first party, the at least one masked portion of the secure message from the remote server.
14. 14 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the authorization is one of a PIN or a password.
15. 15 . A method of secure communication between a first party and a second party configured to exchange secure messages within a less secure messaging system, the less secure messaging system configured to exchange unsecured messages, wherein a secure communication tool is configured to cooperate with the less secure messaging system to enable communication of the secure messages over the less secure messaging system, the method comprising: receiving, at a server that is remote from both an electronic device of the first party and an electronic device of the second party, at least one portion of a secure message that has been sent by the electronic device of the second party, wherein the at least one portion of the secure message is masked to be unreadable on the electronic device of the first party in accordance with the secure communication tool; and sending, from the remote server to the electronic device of the first party, the at least one masked portion of the secure message, wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is sent from the remote server to the electronic device of the first party in response to the first party providing an authorization at the electronic device of the first party using the secure communication tool, wherein the electronic device of the first party is configured to display the at least one masked portion of the secure message retrieved from the remote server as a readable message on a screen of the electronic device of the first party after the first party has provided the authorization using the secure communication tool.
16. 16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the step of receiving, at the remote server, the at least one masked portion of the secure message sent by the electronic device of the second party further comprises receiving the secure message at the remote server.
17. 17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising a step of sending, for a second time, the at least one masked portion of the secure message from the remote server to the electronic device of the first party, wherein the at least one masked portion of the secure message is sent from the remote server to the electronic device of the first party for the second time in response to the first party providing the authorization at the electronic device of the first party for a second time.
18. 18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the secure communication tool is installed on both the electronic device of the first party and on the electronic device of the second party, wherein the second party can access the secure communication tool using an icon displayed on a screen of the electronic device of the second party and the first party can access the secure communication tool through an icon displayed on a screen of the electronic device of the first party.
19. 19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the second party uses the secure communication tool on the electronic device of the second party to create the secure message.
20. 20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the first party uses the secure communication tool on the electronic device of the first party to provide the authorization.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 18/370,918 filed on Sep. 21, 2023, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/230,324 filed on Apr. 14, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,799,654 issued Oct. 24, 2023, which in turn is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/813,303 filed on Nov. 15, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,012,236 issued May 18, 2021, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties as though fully set forth herein. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a secure communication tool, possibly for use within a less secure environment, such as within unsecure messaging systems such as Apple Messages, Facebook Messenger or other traditionally unsecure messaging platforms having non-secure communications. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The Apple Corporation recently released a product called Business Chat which allows businesses to chat with consumers through Messages. A different text bubble pallet, such as black and gray and instead of blue, is provided with that product which can indicate the consumer is messaging with a business rather than with an individual. The product hopes to expose advantages of a richer chat experience to businesses without forcing a user to install a different messaging application. The level of security provided by this new product is not known to the applicant. Traditionally, if an individual has a Smartphone operating on the iOS platform and leaves that phone unlocked, anyone can pick up that phone and open Messages to then read any of the messages contained therein. Some of those messages may contain personal information such as Protect Health Information (PHI), which is protected under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or other private data desired particularly by businesses and others not to become public. Short Message Service (SMS), also known as text messages, are typically unencrypted at some point during the delivery process, thus rendering an SMS channel insecure. There are no access controls once Messages or Messenger is opened. Accordingly, there is a need in the marketplace for making traditionally less secure communication systems more secure, particularly both Facebook and Apple are each believed to have over two billion users. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a present object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved communications tool for use with less secure messaging systems to make at least some messages or communications more secure. It is another object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved messaging tool for use with at least one of Messages and Facebook Messenger. It is a present object of many embodiments of the present invention to provide an improved messaging tool. Within traditionally unsecure environments such as Apple Messages, the applicant has discovered a way to provide for more secure communication preferably achieving at least one if not two if not three of the objectives: (a) providing encryption of data from one user to another, (b) encryption of the data at rest for at least one party, if not both, and/or (c) access controls as well, preferably while still permitting unsecure communications at the option of the user through the same communication tool. Accordingly, in accordance with many embodiments of the present invention, a tool is provided for use such as with the Apple Messages application whereby the tool cooperates with that with system to provide a method of sending and/or receiving encrypted messages from one device to another for encryption. Continued possible encryption on at least one if not both ends can be provided so that stored information at rest is encrypted. Additionally, access controls and/or session rules are preferably provided within the messaging system itself so as to be able to positively identify a particular user and/or to permit access to at least certain messages. Furthermore, some embodiments may provide a mechanism using traditional communication technology such as Apple Messages and/or Facebook Messenger to provide a secure messaging option so as to facilitate communications such as HIPAA regulated information for the medical industry, sufficient security to enable the financial industries to communicate with their customers as well, and/or other purpose, preferably while simultaneously permitting unsecured communication within the same channel. There may be additional markets which can benefit from this technology as well. Messaging applications and tools have been around for many years. In more recent years Apple has allowed developers to insert apps within the Messages platform such as Open Table (which permits users to make restaurant reservations through the Messages platform) and can allow for the transmission of video, audio, images and/or other data. While many improvement