Patent ID: 8181223

Claim:
An electronic apparatus comprising: a signal control port and a job data port, each of the ports being logical ports that are separated from each other; an authentication unit that authenticates a job through communication via the signal control port; a receiver that receives job data through communication via the job data port, the job data to be received being of the job authenticated by the authentication unit, said job data to be received by the receiver via the job data port being encrypted with a common key at a location of a sender of the job data; and the authentication unit generating a public key, a secret key and an authentication information, receiving a job authentication information from the sender via the signal control port and checking to see if the received job authentication information is identical to the generated authentication information, and if the received job authentication information and the generated authentication information are in agreement with each other, sending the sender the public key to encrypt the common key and receiving the encrypted common key from the sender via the signal control port so as to thereafter decrypt the encrypted common key with the secret key so as to allow the job data to be executed at the job data port.