Patents by Inventor Roy Peter D'Souza

Roy Peter D'Souza 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: 8891772
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to allowing a user to store encrypted, third-party-accessible data in a data store and to providing third party data access to a user's encrypted data according to a predefined policy. A data storage system receives encrypted data from a user at a data storage system. The data is encrypted using the user's private key. The data storage system stores the received encrypted data according to a predefined policy. The encryption prevents the storage system from gaining access to the encrypted data, while the policy allows the encrypted data to be released upon receiving a threshold number of requests from verified third parties. The data storage system implements a verifiable secret sharing scheme to verify that the encrypted data can be reconstituted without the data storage system accessing the encrypted data. The data storage system synchronously acknowledges that the received encrypted data has been verified and successfully stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Omkant Pandey
  • Patent number: 8875234
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for an operator provisioning a trustworthy workspace to a subscriber are disclosed. One method includes providing the subscriber with the trustworthy workspace, where in the trustworthy workspace comprises a virtualized content repository with trustworthy workflows for storing, sharing and processing a digital content across a plurality of repositories. The method further includes allowing the subscriber authority to sub-provision the trustworthy workspace to one or more authorized parties, wherein only the one or more authorized parties can view or modify at least a portion of the digital content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: PivotCloud, Inc.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Jieming Zhu, Frank Salzmann, Bala Kaushik, Ronald Totah, James Chappell
  • Publication number: 20140297333
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for a user-mediator mediating transfer of electronic content, are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a mediator computing device of the user-mediator, a second share SKG2 from an owner-publisher server of an owner-publisher, wherein a first share SKG1 is provided to a member server of a member of a group by the owner-publisher. The method further includes the user-mediator receiving a request, by the member, for mediation, comprising the user-mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content from the member, determining, by the user-mediator, whether the member is eligible to decrypt the electronic content, if eligible, the user-mediator responding to the request for mediation with a member accessible header.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Applicant: AlephCloud Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20140236839
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for a user-mediator controlling access to an electronic content, are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a user-mediator server of the user-mediator, a second share SKG2 from an owner server, wherein a first share SKG1 is provided to a member server of a member of a group by the owner. Further, the user-mediator receives a request from the member for mediation, including the mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content. Further, the mediator receives a request for mediation, including the mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content from the member. Further, the user-mediator determines whether the member is eligible to decrypt the electronic content, if eligible, the user-mediator responds to the request for mediation with a member accessible header, wherein the member accessible header includes the header after application of SKG2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2014
    Publication date: August 21, 2014
    Applicant: ALEPHCLOUD SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventor: Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20140208108
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for a mediator enforcing policies to a resource utilizing an electronic content, are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a mediator computing device of a mediator, a second share SKG2 from an owner server, wherein a first share SKG1 is provided to a member server of a member of a group by the owner server, wherein the owner defines policies associated with the group. The method further includes the mediator receiving a request from the member for mediation, including the mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content, determining, by the mediator, whether the member is eligible to access the electronic content based at least in part on the policies associated with the group, if eligible, the mediator responds to the request for mediation with a member accessible header.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2014
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: ALEPHCLOUD SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: James Lewis Lester, Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20140164769
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for a custodian securing a secret are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a custodian server of a first custodian, encrypted shares, wherein the encrypted share are generated based on a secret of the user, a policy, and a plurality of public keys, comprising generating a plurality of shares from the secret, and encrypting each share utilizing a corresponding one of the plurality of public keys. The method further includes verifying, by the custodian server, that the encrypted shares can be used to reconstitute the secret upon receiving the encrypted shares, comprising leveraging, by the first custodian, one-way cryptographic functions, wherein the first custodian can reconstruct the secret, but cannot obtain access to the secret or any of the shares.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Publication date: June 12, 2014
    Applicant: ALEPHCLOUD SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventor: Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20140149734
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for a mediator controlling access to an electronic content, are disclosed. One method includes receiving, by a mediator server of a mediator, a second share SKG2 from an owner server, wherein a first share SKG1 is provided to a member server of a member of a group by the owner server. Further, the mediator receives a request for mediation, including the mediator receiving a dispatch of the header of the encrypted electronic content from the member. Further, the mediator determines whether the member is eligible to decrypt the electronic content, if eligible, the mediator responding to the request for mediation with a member accessible header, wherein the member accessible header includes the header after application of SKG2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2014
    Publication date: May 29, 2014
    Applicant: ALEPHCLOUD SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Lars Kuhtz
  • Patent number: 8731203
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for securing a secret are disclosed. One method includes receiving a secret from the user and generating encrypted shares based on the secret, a policy, and a plurality of public keys. The encrypted shares are provided to a custodian, wherein the custodian verifies that the encrypted shares can be used to reconstitute the secret upon receiving the encrypted shares.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: AlephCloud Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20140090089
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to providing attribute-based data access. In an embodiment, a data request specifies one or more search data attributes describing requested data that is to be found in an anonymous directory. The anonymous directory is configured to provide access to secured data according to access controls defined one or more clients. The secured data includes data that is associated with a particular client and that is encrypted using multi-authority attribute-based encryption, which associates the data with one or more encryption data attributes and that enables the data to be provided if conditions in the corresponding access controls are met. The particular portion of data is provided based on determining that the conditions in the corresponding access controls are met, and that at least one of the search data attributes is determined to be relevant to at least one of the encryption data attributes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Omkant Pandey
  • Patent number: 8681992
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for monitoring and controlling access to an electronic content are disclosed. One method includes creating, by an owner server, a group comprising generating a group public key PKG and a group secret key SKG. The method further includes adding, by the owner server, a member to the group, comprising generating a first share SKG1 from the group secret key SKG and a public key of a member, and a second share SKG2 from the group secret key SKG and a public key of a mediator, and providing, by the owner server, the first share SKG1 to a member server of the member and the second shares SKG2 to a mediator server of the mediator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: AlephCloud Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Lars Kuhtz
  • Publication number: 20140075184
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to securing data in the cloud, securely encrypting data that is to be stored in the cloud and to securely decrypting data accessed from the cloud. In one scenario, an instantiated trust service receives information indicating that a trust server is to be instantiated. The trust service instantiates the trust server, which is configured to store key references and encrypted keys. The trust service receives the public key portion of a digital certificate for each publisher and subscriber that is to have access to various specified portions of encrypted data. A data access policy is then defined that specifies which encrypted data portions can be accessed by which subscribers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2012
    Publication date: March 13, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Irina Gorbach, Venkatesh Krishnan, Andrey Shur, Dmitry Denisov, Lars Kuhtz, Sumalatha Adabala, Roy Peter D'Souza, Michael Entin, Michael Ray Clark, Gitika Aggarwal Saubhasik
  • Publication number: 20140075518
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for an operator provisioning a trustworthy workspace to a subscriber are disclosed. One method includes providing the subscriber with the trustworthy workspace, where in the trustworthy workspace comprises a virtualized content repository with trustworthy workflows for storing, sharing and processing a digital content across a plurality of repositories. The method further includes allowing the subscriber authority to sub-provision the trustworthy workspace to one or more authorized parties, wherein only the one or more authorized parties can view or modify at least a portion of the digital content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Publication date: March 13, 2014
    Applicant: AlephCloud Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Jieming Zhu, Frank Salzmann, Bala Kaushik, Ronald Totah, James Chappell
  • Patent number: 8627508
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to facilitating data transfer using an anonymous directory and to providing attribute-based data access to identified users. In an embodiment, a computer system instantiates an anonymous directory that stores data in various client-specific directories for different clients. The anonymous directory is configured to provide data access according to access controls defined and managed by the client. The computer system receives a data request from a user that identifies the user and specifies a portion of data that is to be returned to the user. The computer system determines which of the client's data is to be returned to the user based on the client's specified access controls. The access controls grant access to specified data in some of the client-specific directories, based on the user's identity. The computer system then provides the determined data to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Omkant Pandey
  • Publication number: 20130254841
    Abstract: A secure cloud computing platform. The platform has a pool of secure computing devices such that each can be allocated to a customer as with other computing resources. Each secure computing device may be configured by a customer with a key and software for performing operations on sensitive data. The customer may submit data, defining a job for execution on the platform, as cyphertext. The secure computing device may perform operations on that data, which may include decrypting the data with the key and then executing the software to perform an operation on cleartext data. This operation, and the data on which it is performed, though in cleartext, may be inaccessible to the operator of the cloud computing platform. The device may operate according to a secure protocol under which the software is validated before loading and the device is provisioned with a key shared with the customer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ramarathnam Venkatesan, Kenneth H. Eguro, Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20130254539
    Abstract: A digital escrow pattern and trustworthy platform is provided for data services including mathematical transformation techniques, such as searchable encryption techniques, for obscuring data stored at remote site or in a cloud service, distributing trust across multiple entities to avoid a single point of data compromise. Using the techniques of a trustworthy platform, data (and associated metadata) is decoupled from the containers that hold the data (e.g., file systems, databases, etc.) enabling the data to act as its own custodian through imposition of a shroud of mathematical complexity that is pierced with presented capabilities, such as keys granted by a cryptographic key generator of a trust platform. Sharing of, or access to, the data or a subset of that data is facilitated in a manner that preserves and extends trust without the need for particular containers for enforcement.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: RAHUL V. AURADKAR, ROY PETER D'SOUZA, DARRELL J. CANNON
  • Publication number: 20130212395
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for monitoring and controlling access to an electronic content are disclosed. One method includes creating, by an owner server, a group comprising generating a group public key PKG and a group secret key SKG. The method further includes adding, by the owner server, a member to the group, comprising generating a first share SKG1 from the group secret key SKG and a public key of a member, and a second share SKG2 from the group secret key SKG and a public key of a mediator, and providing, by the owner server, the first share SKG1 to a member server of the member and the second shares SKG2 to a mediator server of the mediator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2012
    Publication date: August 15, 2013
    Applicant: AlephCloud Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Lars Kuhtz
  • Publication number: 20130212388
    Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatuses for providing trustworthy workflow across trust boundaries are disclosed. One method includes a curator generating a first public key (PKC1) and a second public key (PKC2), publishing the first public key (PKC1) and the second public key (PKC2), and generating a first proxy re-encryption key (RKC1-C2) and a second proxy re-encryption key (RKC2-B). Further, a first party encrypts data having a key k, wherein k is encrypted according to the first public key (PKC1). A custodian proxy re-encrypts k from the first public key (PKC1) to the second public key (PKC2) using the first proxy re-encryption key (RK C1-C2), and the custodian proxy re-encrypts k from the second public key (PKC2) to a public key (PKB) of the second party B using the second proxy re-encryption key (RKC2-B). The second party B receiving the data and decrypting the data with the key k.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Publication date: August 15, 2013
    Applicant: ALEPHCLOUD SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Jieming Zhu
  • Patent number: 8468345
    Abstract: A digital escrow pattern and trustworthy platform is provided for data services including mathematical transformation techniques, such as searchable encryption techniques, for obscuring data stored at remote site or in a cloud service, distributing trust across multiple entities to avoid a single point of data compromise. Using the techniques of a trustworthy platform, data (and associated metadata) is decoupled from the containers that hold the data (e.g., file systems, databases, etc.) enabling the data to act as its own custodian through imposition of a shroud of mathematical complexity that is pierced with presented capabilities, such as keys granted by a cryptographic key generator of a trust platform. Sharing of, or access to, the data or a subset of that data is facilitated in a manner that preserves and extends trust without the need for particular containers for enforcement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Rahul V. Auradkar, Roy Peter D'Souza, Darrell J. Cannon
  • Patent number: 8341427
    Abstract: A digital escrow pattern is provided for network data services including searchable encryption techniques for data stored in a cloud, distributing trust across multiple entities to avoid a single point of data compromise. In one embodiment, a key generator, a cryptographic technology provider and a cloud services provider are each provided as separate entities, enabling a publisher of data to publish data confidentially (encrypted) to a cloud services provider, and then expose the encrypted data selectively to subscribers requesting that data based on subscriber identity information encoded in key information generated in response to the subscriber requests, e.g., a role of the subscriber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Rahul V. Auradkar, Roy Peter D'Souza
  • Publication number: 20120324237
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to facilitating data transfer using an anonymous directory and to providing attribute-based data access to identified users. In an embodiment, a computer system instantiates an anonymous directory that stores data in various client-specific directories for different clients. The anonymous directory is configured to provide data access according to access controls defined and managed by the client. The computer system receives a data request from a user that identifies the user and specifies a portion of data that is to be returned to the user. The computer system determines which of the client's data is to be returned to the user based on the client's specified access controls. The access controls grant access to specified data in some of the client-specific directories, based on the user's identity. The computer system then provides the determined data to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Publication date: December 20, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Roy Peter D'Souza, Omkant Pandey