Patents by Inventor Brian Neill

Brian Neill has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10102500
    Abstract: A serialization service module is provided for configuring an asset management system to provide a secure means of generating, assigning to chips (or other electronic objects or devices), and tracking unique serial numbers. To provide this service, a controller connects through a secure, encrypted connection to appliances at a manufacturer's location. Agents can then request serial number values from an appliance by product name. The serial numbers are generated by the appliance, metered, and provided to the agents. The serial numbers are then injected sequentially into each die in a chip manufacturing process using the agent. A log is reported to the controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Eric Fung, Brian Neill, Chi Chiu Tse
  • Patent number: 9946884
    Abstract: Systems and methods for cryptographic suite management are described. A system for cryptographic suite management has a cryptographic suite management unit comprising a series of APIs enabling diverse applications to call cryptographic functions. The system enables: multiple applications on an interface to access shared cryptographic resources; applications across multiple devices to share and license cryptographic resources between devices; encryption, decryption and sharing of data between devices having different cryptographic implementations; the definition, distribution and enforcement of policies governing the terms of use for cryptographic implementations, systems and methods to secure and protect shared and dynamically loaded cryptographic providers; use by an application of multiple cryptographic resources and the management of cryptographic provider bundles and associated policies across one or many cryptographic suite management unit instances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Inventors: Adrian Antipa, Dominic Chorafakis, Brian Neill
  • Patent number: 9692737
    Abstract: A system and method for controlling a production process for producing a product is provided in which overproduction may be inhibited by introducing a separation of duties within a production process. Typically a producer will contract out the various stages of a production process to multiple contractors. In general, separation of duties involves purposefully separating production stages, for silicon chips or other products, so that the end product has been handled or “touched”, by each subcontractor, in order for the end product to be fully functional.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: CERTICOM CORP.
    Inventors: Anthony J. Walters, Brian Neill, Tony Rosati, Ashok Vadekar, Daniel O'Loughlin
  • Patent number: 9589144
    Abstract: Systems and methods for cryptographic suite management are described. A system for cryptographic suite management has a cryptographic suite management unit comprising a series of APIs enabling diverse applications to call cryptographic functions. The system enables: multiple applications on an interface to access shared cryptographic resources; applications across multiple devices to share and license cryptographic resources between devices; encryption, decryption and sharing of data between devices having different cryptographic implementations; the definition, distribution and enforcement of policies governing the terms of use for cryptographic implementations, systems and methods to secure and protect shared and dynamically loaded cryptographic providers; use by an application of multiple cryptographic resources and the management of cryptographic provider bundles and associated policies across one or many cryptographic suite management unit instances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: INFOSEC GLOBAL INC.
    Inventors: Adrian Antipa, Dominic Chorafakis, Brian Neill
  • Publication number: 20160162836
    Abstract: A serialization service module is provided for configuring an asset management system to provide a secure means of generating, assigning to chips (or other electronic objects or devices), and tracking unique serial numbers. To provide this service, a controller connects through a secure, encrypted connection to appliances at a manufacturer's location. Agents can then request serial number values from an appliance by product name. The serial numbers are generated by the appliance, metered, and provided to the agents. The serial numbers are then injected sequentially into each die in a chip manufacturing process using the agent. A log is reported to the controller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2015
    Publication date: June 9, 2016
    Inventors: Eric FUNG, Brian NEILL, Chi Chiu TSE
  • Publication number: 20160028698
    Abstract: Systems and methods for cryptographic suite management are described. A system for cryptographic suite management has a cryptographic suite management unit comprising a series of APIs enabling diverse applications to call cryptographic functions. The system enables: multiple applications on an interface to access shared cryptographic resources; applications across multiple devices to share and license cryptographic resources between devices; encryption, decryption and sharing of data between devices having different cryptographic implementations; the definition, distribution and enforcement of policies governing the terms of use for cryptographic implementations, systems and methods to secure and protect shared and dynamically loaded cryptographic providers; use by an application of multiple cryptographic resources and the management of cryptographic provider bundles and associated policies across one or many cryptographic suite management unit instances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2015
    Publication date: January 28, 2016
    Inventors: Adrian ANTIPA, Dominic CHORAFAKIS, Brian NEILL
  • Publication number: 20160026807
    Abstract: Systems and methods for cryptographic suite management are described. A system for cryptographic suite management has a cryptographic suite management unit comprising a series of APIs enabling diverse applications to call cryptographic functions. The system enables: multiple applications on an interface to access shared cryptographic resources; applications across multiple devices to share and license cryptographic resources between devices; encryption, decryption and sharing of data between devices having different cryptographic implementations; the definition, distribution and enforcement of policies governing the terms of use for cryptographic implementations, systems and methods to secure and protect shared and dynamically loaded cryptographic providers; use by an application of multiple cryptographic resources and the management of cryptographic provider bundles and associated policies across one or many cryptographic suite management unit instances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2015
    Publication date: January 28, 2016
    Inventors: Adrian ANTIPA, Dominic CHORAFAKIS, Brian NEILL
  • Patent number: 9208459
    Abstract: A serialization service module is provided for configuring an asset management system to provide a secure means of generating, assigning to chips (or other electronic objects or devices), and tracking unique serial numbers. To provide this service, a controller is used to define a product model, then to define one or more serialization schemas to be bound to each product model. Each serialization schema contains a range of serial numbers for a particular product. The serial number schemas are sent over a secure, encrypted connection to appliances at the manufacturer's location. Agents can then request serial number values by product name. The serial numbers are generated by the appliance, metered, and provided to the agents. The serial numbers are then injected sequentially into each die in a chip manufacturing process using the agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Eric Fung, Brian Neill, Chi Chiu Tse
  • Patent number: 9121119
    Abstract: A partial revocation list and a system and method for using the partial revocation list for tracking the authenticity of replacement cartridges in a manufactured device to inhibit cloning of the cartridges is provided. A revocation pool is maintained by a manufacturer who chooses a partial revocation list from the revocation pool to store in the memory of the cartridge. The device stores its own revocation list, informs the manufacturer of cartridges which have been used and checks when a new device is installed to ensure a cloned replacement is not being used. The partial revocation list distributes enough revocation information to devices to statistically impair the cartridge yield of a cloning operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar
  • Patent number: 9013266
    Abstract: An authenticated RFID system is provided that uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to reduce the signature size and read/write times when compared to traditional public key implementations such as RSA. Either ECDSA or ECPVS can be used to reduce the signature size and ECPVS can be used to hide a portion of the RFID tag that contains sensitive product identifying information. As a result, smaller tags can be used or multiple signatures can be written at different stages in a manufacturing or supply chain. A key management system is used to distribute the verification keys and aggregate signature schemes are also provided for adding multiple signatures to the RFID tags, for example in a supply chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Michael Griffiths-Harvey, Brian Neill, Keelan Smith, Tony Rosati, Walt Davis
  • Patent number: 8972721
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar, Patrick Xu
  • Patent number: 8938615
    Abstract: An authenticated RFID system is provided that uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to reduce the signature size and read/write times when compared to traditional public key implementations such as RSA. Either ECDSA or ECPVS can be used to reduce the signature size and ECPVS can be used to hide a portion of the RFID tag that contains sensitive product identifying information. As a result, smaller tags can be used or multiple signatures can be written at different stages in a manufacturing or supply chain. A key management system is used to distribute the verification keys and aggregate signature schemes are also provided for adding multiple signatures to the RFID tags, for example in a supply chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Ceritcom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Anthony J. Walters, Randy Tsang
  • Patent number: 8566791
    Abstract: The present invention provides an inexpensive, software-based security-retrofit solution to verify the integrity of program code in embedded systems, or accessories, without resorting to expensive hardware changes. All unused memory on an accessory that could be used to store a program code image is filled with random data. A host system also locally stores a copy of the accessory's program image containing the random data. The host system sends the accessory a list of memory addresses or memory ranges on the accessory, which is always different and random in nature. The accessory will then produce a digest using values stored in the memory addresses as inputs to a secure hash function. The host system verifies the integrity of the embedded program code by verifying the resulting digest produced by and returned from the accessory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: BlackBerry Limited
    Inventors: Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Publication number: 20130238899
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2013
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: CERTICOM CORP.
    Inventors: Brian NEILL, Ashok VADEKAR, Patrick XU
  • Patent number: 8510570
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for authenticating and securing an embedded device using a secure boot procedure and a full non-volatile memory encryption process that implements Elliptic Curve Pinstov-Vanstone Signature (ECPV) scheme with message recovery on a personalized BIOS and master boot record. The signature includes code that is recovered in order to unlock a key that is in turn used to decrypt the non-volatile memory. The use of ECPVS provides an implicit verification that the hardware is bound to the BIOS since the encrypted memory is useless unless properly decrypted with the proper key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Keelan Smith, Scott A. Vanstone, Daniel R. Brown, Darryl L. Parisien, Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Patent number: 8423765
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar, Patrick Xu
  • Publication number: 20120131322
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for authenticating and securing an embedded device using a secure boot procedure and a full non-volatile memory encryption process that implements Elliptic Curve Pinstov-Vanstone Signature (ECPV) scheme with message recovery on a personalized BIOS and master boot record. The signature includes code that is recovered in order to unlock a key that is in turn used to decrypt the non-volatile memory. The use of ECPVS provides an implicit verification that the hardware is bound to the BIOS since the encrypted memory is useless unless properly decrypted with the proper key.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2012
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Applicant: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Keelan Smith, Scott A. Vanstone, Daniel R. Brown, Darryl L. Parisien, Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Patent number: 8166308
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for authenticating and securing an embedded device using a secure boot procedure and a full non-volatile memory encryption process that implements Elliptic Curve Pinstov-Vanstone Signature (ECPV) scheme with message recovery on a personalized BIOS and master boot record. The signature includes code that is recovered in order to unlock a key that is in turn used to decrypt the non-volatile memory. The use of ECPVS provides an implicit verification that the hardware is bound to the BIOS since the encrypted memory is useless unless properly decrypted with the proper key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Keelan Smith, Scott A. Vanstone, Daniel R. Brown, Darryl L. Parisien, Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Publication number: 20110063093
    Abstract: A serialization service module is provided for configuring an asset management system to provide a secure means of generating, assigning to chips (or other electronic objects or devices), and tracking unique serial numbers. To provide this service, a controller is used to define a product model, then to define one or more serialization schemas to be bound to each product model. Each serialization schema contains a range of serial numbers for a particular product. The serial number schemas are sent over a secure, encrypted connection to appliances at the manufacturer's location. Agents can then request serial number values by product name. The serial numbers are generated by the appliance, metered, and provided to the agents. The serial numbers are then injected sequentially into each die in a chip manufacturing process using the agent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Publication date: March 17, 2011
    Applicant: CERTICOM CORP.
    Inventors: Eric Fung, Brian Neill, Chi Chiu Tse
  • Publication number: 20100312791
    Abstract: A partial revocation list and a system and method for using the partial revocation list for tracking the authenticity of replacement cartridges in a manufactured device to inhibit cloning of the cartridges is provided. A revocation pool is maintained by a manufacturer who chooses a partial revocation list from the revocation pool to store in the memory of the cartridge. The device stores its own revocation list, informs the manufacturer of cartridges which have been used and checks when a new device is installed to ensure a cloned replacement is not being used. The partial revocation list distributes enough revocation information to devices to statistically impair the cartridge yield of a cloning operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2010
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar