Patent ID: 8032756
Filing Date: 2011-10-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A signature support system which supports inclusion of a signature in document data, comprising: a remote machine; a local machine which provides terminal services to the remote machine; a document management server which provides document management services to the local machine; and a signature server which provides key services and signature services to the local machine, wherein the document management server includes: document data storing means which stores document data; document management authenticating means which authenticates the local machine by using document management server authentication information; and document management control means which correlates the document data with a document ID serving as identification information of the document data, to store the document data in the document data storing means, in accordance with an instruction from the local machine authenticated by the document management authenticating means, transmits the document data correlated with the document ID received from the signature server and stored in the document data storing means, in accordance with an instruction from the signature server, receives a signature ID as identification information of signature data for the document data from the signature server, and correlates the signature ID with the document data, to store the signature ID in the document data storing means; the signature server includes: signature data storing means which stores the signature data; key storing means which stores a signature key and a verification key; signature authenticating means which authenticates the local machine by using signature server authentication information; key control means which generates a pair of a signature key and a verification key in accordance with a key generation request received from the local machine authenticated by the signature authenticating means, and correlates the pair of keys with biometric authentication information, obtained at the remote machine, of a person who is involved with a document to be registered in the document management server and who is not a user of the remote machine, included in the key generation request, to store the keys in the key storing means and to make the keys searchable; and signature control means which accesses the document management server to read the document data having the document ID received from the local machine, from the document management server, in accordance with a signature generation request received from the local machine authenticated by the signature authenticating means, obtains by searching, as a key, the biometric information, obtained at the remote machine, of the person who is involved with the document to be registered in the document management server and who is not the user of the remote machine, included in the signature generation request, and stored in the key storing means, generates signature data for the document data by using the signature key, correlates the signature data with a signature ID of the signature data, to store the signature data in the signature data storing means, and notifies the document management server of the signature ID; the local machine includes: local authenticating means which authenticates the user of the remote machine by using local machine authentication information; terminal service providing means which provides the terminal services to the remote machine operated by the user of the remote machine authenticated by the local authenticating means; document management server access control means which accesses the document management server by using preregistered document management server authentication information in accordance with an instruction from the remote machine using the terminal services; and signature server access control means which accesses the signature server by using preregistered signature server authentication information in accordance with an instruction from the local machine using the terminal services, the remote machine includes: local machine authentication information input means which receives input of local machine authentication information of the user of the remote machine; biometric information reading means which reads the biometric information of the person who is involved with the document to be registered in the document management server and who is different from the user of the remote machine; and local machine access control means which accesses the local machine by using the local machine authentication information received by the local machine authentication information input means, to receive the terminal services of the local machine; wherein the document management server access control means of the local machine registers the document data together with the document ID of the document data in the document management server in accordance with an instruction received from the remote machine via the terminal services; and wherein further the signature server access control means of the local machine generates a key generation request that includes the biometric information of the person who is involved with the document to be registered in the document management server and who is different from the user of the remote machine in accordance with an instruction, including the biometric information obtained at the remote machine, received from the remote machine via the terminal services, transmits the key generation request thus generated to the signature server, generates the signature generation request that includes biometric information of the person who is involved with the document to be registered in the document management server and who is different from the user of the remote machine, in accordance with an instruction including the biometric information obtained at the remote machine, received from the remote machine via the terminal services, transmits the signature generation request thus generated to the signature server, and receives the signature ID of the signature data generated by the signature server from the signature server.