Patent ID: 7730037

Claim:
A tangible computer-readable medium encoded with instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors causes the “one or more processors” to apply a fragile watermark to a relational database by performing the steps of: a) accessing the relational database, the relational database including relations, the relations including data; the data including at least one tuple, each tuple having an associated primary key; b) computing a primary key hash value for at least one tuple according to: i) a secret embedding key; and ii) the primary key associated with the tuple; c) dividing at least two tuples into at least one tuple group based upon the primary key hash value; d) sorting at least two of the tuples in at least one tuple group using the primary key hash; e) applying said fragile watermark to at least one tuple group without changing the value of any datum in the database; f) computing a tuple hash for at least one tuple based on the secret embedding key and all attributes of the tuple; g) computing a group hash value for at least one tuple group based on: i) the tuple hash of the sorted tuples in the tuple group; and ii) the secret embedding key; and h) extracting a fragile watermark from the group hash value.