Patent ID: 7587045

Claim:
A system for secure communication of electronic document data on a network comprising: means for receiving user identification data associate with an identity of a user of document processing devices on an associated network; password key generator means for generating data representative of a password key from the user identification data; means for dividing the password key into first and second shares; means for communicating the first share to an associated storage area disposed in a trusted, commonly accessible repository; means for receiving data representative of an electronic document; encryption key generator means for randomly generating an encryption key; means for encrypting the encryption key with the password key; encryption means for encrypting the electronic document in accordance with the encryption key so as to generate an encrypted electronic document; means for appending the second share to the encrypted electronic document; and means for communicating the encrypted electronic document and the appended second share to an associated document processing device; means for receiving the encrypted electronic document and appended second share into the document processing device; means for isolating the second share from the encrypted electronic document via the document processing device; means for receiving into the document processing device, the first share from the repository; means for conjoining the first share and the second share via the document processing device to reconstruct the password key; means for decrypting the encryption key via the document processing device in accordance with the reconstructed password key; and means for decrypting the electronic document via the document processing device in accordance with the decrypted encryption key.