Patent ID: 11934511
Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. An information processing system comprising:
a plurality of terminal devices; and
a plurality of information processing devices connected between the plurality of terminal devices and a network,
wherein the information processing device comprises:
a first communication unit connectable to a terminal device which is connectable to a network and configured to communicate with the terminal device;
a second communication unit connectable to the network and configured to communicate via the network with a device connected to the network;
an information processing unit configured to encrypt information, when at least the first communication unit receives information from the terminal device, and to transmit the encrypted information to the network via the second communication unit, and the information processing unit configured to decrypt the encrypted information, when at least the second communication unit receives the encrypted information from the network, and to transmit the decrypted information to the terminal device via the first communication unit; and
a switching unit configured to directly connect a communication line between the first communication unit and the terminal device to another communication line between the second communication unit and the network, when the information processing unit comes into an inoperable state including at least electric power supply stop state, and to switch into a pass-through mode in which the terminal device and the network communicate directly with each other without through the information processing unit;
wherein if a counterpart information processing device comes into the pass-through mode where the counterpart information processing device includes a first communication unit, a second communication unit, an information processing unit, and a switching unit, and where the counterpart information processing device is connected between the network and a counterpart terminal device with which the terminal device communicates via the network, then the information processing unit permits the counterpart information processing device to communicate with the counterpart terminal device in a predetermined time period on the basis of parameters related to a communication state of the counterpart information processing device and restrict the counterpart information processing device from communicating with the counterpart terminal device after the predetermined time period has elapsed.