Patent Grant
8364306
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to managing documents. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for managing document destruction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, many businesses have an occasion to discard confidential data. This confidential data includes, for example, customer lists, price lists, sale statistics, drafts of bids, correspondence, business plans, and technical information. Examples of documents that are discarded on a regular basis are business records after the retention period for these documents has expired. This type of information may be of interest to competitors. Additionally, businesses also are entrusted with information that must be kept private and confidential.
Customers of businesses often expect that their information will be kept confidential and out of the hands of others. This confidential data often is in the form of documents submitted by customers or others. Additionally, these documents may be ones generated by the business during the ordinary course of business.
Without proper safeguards, these types of documents typically end up in a trash bin or dumpster where the documents are readily available to anybody who desires to look through these waste containers.
An acceptable method for discarding stored documents is to destroy them by a method that ensures that the information cannot be obtained by others. One popular method of destroying documents involves shredding documents. The documents are placed into a device or apparatus that cuts up or shreds the documents into tiny pieces such that the confidential or private information contained on those documents cannot be read.
Oftentimes, businesses keep records of the document destruction as a means to verify that documents have been destroyed. A business may destroy documents using its own employees and equipment, or oftentimes, a business will enlist a document destruction service to destroy the documents. These types of services often document the date that materials are destroyed with a certificate of destruction. In documenting the destruction of documents, these certificates are used to ensure that documents that should be destroyed through document retention policies are destroyed according to these policies. These certificates are used to avoid a negative inference that documents may have been destroyed for improper purposes.
Another issue is controlling or managing the destruction of documents. Safeguards against destroying valuable records or records needed for other purposes are hard to implement. With the large amounts of documents being destroyed on a daily basis, it is difficult to verify whether every document should or should not be destroyed.
The present invention provides a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable code for shredding objects. The apparatus has a number of components including a receptacle that is configured to receive objects. A shredding unit is connected to the receptacle, wherein the shredding unit selectively destroys the objects placed into the receptacle. An object detector is used to detect the presence of an object in the receptacle. An object identifier identifies objects placed into the receptacle. The apparatus also has a memory and a connector. The connector is used to establish a communications link with a data processing system. A controller in the apparatus stores identifications of objects identified by the object identifier in the memory and sends a signal to the shredding unit to control shredding of the objects.
The controller has a plurality of modes of operation. A first mode of operation is responsive to an object being placed in the receptacle for destruction. In this first mode the controller generates an identification of the object using the object identifier, stores the identification of the object in the memory, and sends the signal to the shredding unit to shred the object. In a second mode of operation, responsive to the communications link to the data processing system being established, the controller sends identifications stored in the memory to the data processing system. A third mode of operation is responsive to the communications link to the data processing system being present in which the controller identifies another object placed into the receptacle, the controller generates another identification of the another object, and the controller determines whether to send the signal to the shredding unit to destroy the another object based on the another identification of the object.
In the third mode of operation, the controller sends the another identification of the another object to the data processing system and receives a response as to whether the another object is to be destroyed. In the third mode of operation, the controller compares the identification of the another object with a collection of object identifications and makes a determination to destroy the another object if the another identification is not present in the collection of object identifications. In this third mode of operation, if the determination to destroy the object is absent, the controller causes the another object to be moved to a secure bin.
The object shredding apparatus also comprises a bin connected to the shredding unit, wherein the shredding unit deposits shredded material generated by shredding the objects in the bin. The apparatus also comprises a capacity sensor to determine an amount of shredded material.
The sending of the signal by the controller to the shredding unit may be controlled by the data processing system. The connector in the object shredding apparatus may be at least one of a serial port, a parallel port, a universal serial bus, a network interface card, a modem, a Bluetooth device, and a wireless communications unit.
The object shredding apparatus further comprises a control panel connected to the controller. The control panel is used to operate the object shredding apparatus. The controller may be, for example, a processor or an application specific integrated circuit.
The controller generates a proof of object destruction and transfers the proof of object destruction to the data processing system over the communications link. The controller also schedules a pickup for destroyed objects using the communications link. The object takes many forms, such as, for example, a document, an envelope, a floppy disk, a compact disk, credit card, or a DVD disk.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
With references now to the figures and in particular with reference to
Shredder 102 is computer controlled, meaning that computer 104 may send commands and data over communications link 106 to control the functionality and operation of shredder 102. Examples of commands that may be sent to shredder 102 from computer 104 include shred an object, read the identification of an object, read the status of the shredder, enable or disable standalone shredder operation, send a message to an output panel on shredder 102, and control the power to shredder 102.
Additionally, shredder 102 may send data back to computer 104 regarding document destruction activities. This information and other information may be stored in document database 108. For example, shredder 102 may send certifications that particular documents have been destroyed by shredder 102. These certifications may be stored as confirmation objects 110 by computer 104 within document database 108. Further, security and access control to shredding documents at shredder 102 are controlled through access control information in access control level (ACL) database 112.
Using these components, the aspects of the present invention provide a computer controlled shredder system in which computer 104 is employed to log shredding activity and set security levels for using the shredder. For example, shredding of documents may be allowed for a certain set of users through an administrator specified time schedule in which only specified types of documents or particular documents may be destroyed. The destruction of documents may be allowed only during certain periods of time.
In these illustrative examples, shredder 102 includes a capacity sensor to provide feedback on the current capacity and contents of destroyed documents. Shredder 102 also may contain a security log such that access to the shredded contents is available only when using a control panel that provides secured access. Shredder 102 may be employed to shred a variety of objects besides paper documents. For example, an envelope, a credit card, a floppy disk, a CD disk, or a DVD disk are examples of other objects that may be shredded using shredder 102.
With reference now to
In the depicted example, data processing system 200 employs a hub architecture including a north bridge and memory controller hub (MCH) 202 and a south bridge and input/output (I/O) controller hub (ICH) 204. Processor 206, main memory 208, and graphics processor 210 are connected to north bridge and memory controller hub 202. Graphics processor 210 may be connected to the MCH through an accelerated graphics port (AGP), for example.
In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter 212 connects to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 and audio adapter 216, keyboard and mouse adapter 220, modem 222, read only memory (ROM) 224, hard disk drive (HDD) 226, CD-ROM drive 230, universal serial bus (USB) ports and other communications ports 232, and PCI/PCIe devices 234 connect to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204 through bus 238 and bus 240. PCI/PCIe devices may include, for example, Ethernet adapters, add-in cards, and PC cards for notebook computers. PCI uses a card bus controller, while PCIe does not. ROM 224 may be, for example, a flash basic input/output system (BIOS). Hard disk drive 226 and CD-ROM drive 230 may use, for example, an integrated drive electronics (IDE) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface. A super I/O (SIO) device 236 may be connected to south bridge and I/O controller hub 204. An example of an I/O device is a PC87308 super I/O chip from National Semiconductor Corporation.
An operating system runs on processor 206 and coordinates and provides control of various components within data processing system 200 in
Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented programming system, and applications or programs are located on storage devices, such as hard disk drive 226, and may be loaded into main memory 208 for execution by processor 206. The processes of the present invention are performed by processor 206 using computer implemented instructions, which may be located in a memory such as, for example, main memory 208, read only memory 224, or in one or more peripheral devices.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in
In some illustrative examples, data processing system 200 may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), which is configured with flash memory to provide non-volatile memory for storing operating system files and/or user-generated data. A bus system may be comprised of one or more buses, such as a system bus, an I/O bus and a PCI bus. Of course the bus system may be implemented using any type of communications fabric or architecture that provides for a transfer of data between different components or devices attached to the fabric or architecture. A communications unit may include one or more devices used to transmit and receive data, such as a modem or a network adapter. A memory may be, for example, main memory 208 or a cache such as found in north bridge and memory controller hub 202. A processing unit may include one or more processors or CPUs. The depicted examples in
Turning now to
In this illustrative example, shredder 300 contains receptacle 302, secure bin 304, shredding mechanism 306, and shred bin 308. Receptacle 302 contains sensor 310, which is used to detect when a document is present within receptacle 302. Sensor 310 may be a device such as a switch that is flipped or tripped when a document is inserted into receptacle 302. Some other examples of types of sensors that may be used to detect a presence of a document and receptacle 302 include a radio frequency identifier (RFID) label, a light beam, a weight scale, or a heat sensor. Secure bin 304 and shred bin 308 each contain capacity sensors 312 and 314 in these examples. These sensors are used to determine the remaining capacity or how full these bins are as objects are processed by shredder 300. Other sensors that may be used to determine the capacity or how full the bins are include, for example, weight sensors and light beam sensors.
Controller 316 has connections to receptacle 302, secure bin 304, shredding mechanism 306, shred bin 308, sensor 310, capacity sensor 312, and capacity sensor 314. Controller 316 controls these components in accordance with the illustrative embodiments of the present invention as described herein. Additionally, controller 316 also receives input signals from different components, such as sensor 310, capacity sensor 312, and capacity sensor 314 and performs various functions as described below. Controller 316 may take various forms. For example, controller 316 may be a processor or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
Controller 316 also is connected to control panel 318, memory 320, communications unit 322, and display 324. Memory 320 may be a single storage device or a combination of different types of storage devices depending on the particular implementation. For example, memory 320 may be a random access memory. In other illustrative embodiments, memory 320 may comprise a hard disk drive, a read-only memory, and a random access memory. Communications unit 322 allows for the establishment of a communications link, such as communications link 106 in
When an object is placed into receptacle 302, sensor 310 detects the presence of this object. In the illustrative examples, the objects are documents. Of course, the aspects of the present invention contemplate that managing the destruction of objects may include various types of physical objects other than just documents, such as, for example, envelopes, credit cards, transparencies, floppy disks, CD disks, and DVD disks. The presence of this document may be presented on display 324. A user may decide to destroy the document by providing the appropriate input into control panel 318. Control panel 318 may take various forms. For example, control panel 318 may present a keyboard with a number of keys labeled with the various operations that may be performed. This keyboard may take the form of a physical keyboard or may take the form of a touch screen that displays keys and the operations that may be performed selecting the displayed keys.
If the user selects a shred function, controller 316 causes receptacle 302 to send the document to shredding mechanism 306. Shredding mechanism 306 may take various forms. For example, shredding mechanism 306 may be a cross-cut shredder that cuts a document into snowflake-like pieces. In this form, shredding mechanism 306 comprises a housing with two sets of cutters installed on two rotating axis with a structure to direct a document through the sets of cutters. A motor is included in shredding mechanism 306 to drive the rotating axis to cut the document into pieces.
Shredding mechanism 306 also may provide for cutting documents into strips. The particular type of shredding mechanism employed may be any currently used shredding mechanism. The currently used shredding mechanisms are modified to be controlled through controller 316. These shredded or destroyed documents are sent into shred bin 308. Shredder 300 may be operated in a standalone manner or in a computer controlled mode through a communications link to a computer system such as computer 104 in
In these examples, sensor 310 also may include a document identifier. The document identifier is used to identify the object that has been placed into receptacle 302 for destruction. In these depicted examples, the document identification may be accomplished through a number of different mechanisms. The particular mechanism used depends on the particular implementation of the different aspects of the present invention. For example, a bar code or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag may be placed on the documents placed into receptacle 302. The use of a bar code or RFID tag reader in sensor 310 may be used to identify the particular document. Alternatively, the document identifier may be a scanner that is used to scan the document being placed into receptacle 302. The scanned document may be processed using optical character recognition (OCR) with the result being used to identify the document.
The identification of the document is stored by controller 316 in memory 320 when the document is destroyed by shredding mechanism 306. Controller 316 contains a log or list of identifications for documents destroyed in memory 320. Alternatively, these identifications may take the form of secure confirmation objects. A secure confirmation object contains the document identification, the time and date of destruction, and certificate information. All of this information is used to verify the destruction of documents. This information is stored in memory 320 until a communications link is established with a computer through communications unit 322. At that time, all data regarding stored documents may be electronically transferred to a computer or other data processing system from shredder 300.
When shredder 300 is in a computer-controlled mode, documents may be selectively destroyed. When an identification of a document occurs, the identified document may be analyzed to determine whether the destruction of that document is allowed. For example, a list of documents that cannot be destroyed may be created. If the document is on this list, then commands are sent to controller 316 to send the document to secure bin 304 rather than to shredding mechanism 306. Secure bin 304 in these illustrative examples is used to store documents that should not be destroyed. If the particular implementation does not contain secure bin 304, shredding mechanism 306 does not activate, and the documents remains in receptacle 302. Alternatively, such a determination also may be made in a standalone mode if a list of documents that should not be destroyed is saved to memory 320.
Capacity sensor 312 and capacity sensor 314 are employed to determine when secure bin 304 and shred bin 308 should be emptied. Signals from capacity sensor 312 and capacity sensor 314 may be used by controller 316 to indicate when the bins should be emptied.
In these illustrative examples, secure bin 304 and shred bin 308 have locks that are computer controlled. The access to these bins is controlled through controller 316. These bins are locked until the appropriate commands are entered through control panel 318 or received from a computer system through communications unit 322. In this manner, access to destroyed objects and undestroyed objects may be controlled.
Further, shredder 300 may provide for access controls through access control policies stored at a remote computer or stored in memory 320. In this manner, users who may use shredder 300 may be controlled. Additionally, the times during which shredding may occur also may be controlled using these access control policies.
Turning now to
When document 400 is placed into the shredder, scanner 402 is used to identify document 400. Scanner 402 may be, for example, a bar code reader, an RFID tag reader, or a document scanner. The document is then placed into tray 404. Scanner 402 and tray 404 are located within receptacle 302 in
Turning now to
State machine 500 shifts into data transfer state 504 from standalone state 502 when a communications link is established. In data transfer state 504, data relating to the destruction of documents is transferred to a computer system. From data transfer state 504, state machine 500 may shift into computer controlled state 506. Alternatively, the communications link may be terminated with state machine 500 returning to standalone state 502. State machine 500 also may move to computer controlled state 506 from standalone state 502 through the establishment of the communications link. Data transfer state 504 does not occur if data is not present to be transferred.
In computer controlled state 506, the shredder may be controlled remotely by the computer system. Additionally, data and commands may be sent to the shredder. For example, access control lists and lists of documents that cannot be destroyed may be transferred to the shredder for use in standalone state 502.
Turning now to
Record 600 may be placed into a list or log. Alternatively, this record may form a separate object, such as a secure confirmation object. This type of object may be stored with secure confirmation objects 110 within document database 108 in
Turning now to
The process begins by detecting the presence of a document in the receptacle (step 700). The presence of the document may be detected through a sensor, such as sensor 310 in
In these examples, the record at a minimum contains the identification of the document being destroyed. Record 600 in
Further, the secure confirmation object is encrypted using a private key for the shredder. As a result, this object cannot be altered and the object may be decrypted only through a public key by anyone who needs to confirm the destruction of the documents. The record is then stored (step 712) with the process terminating thereafter.
With reference again to step 706, the document should not be shredded, an error message is presented (step 714). This error message may be presented on a display, such as display 324 in
Turning next to
The process begins by creating a confirmation object (step 800). The document identification, the time and date of destruction, and certificate information are placed into the confirmation object (step 802). The process then encrypts the confirmation object with a private key to form a secure confirmation object (step 804) with the process terminating thereafter. This secure confirmation object cannot be altered without the private key. Additionally, the secure confirmation object may be viewed only through the use of a public key.
Turning now to
The process begins by detecting a connection to a computer system (step 900). The process then transfers all records to the computer system (step 902). The transferred records are then cleared from the memory in the shredder (step 904) with the process terminating thereafter.
With reference now to
The process begins by requesting a user log in (step 1000). This process is used to identify the user who desires to shred a document. The user log in may occur at a control panel, such as control panel 318 in shredder 300 in
If the shredder can be used, the process identifies the user's access control level (step 1008). A determination is made as to whether the user can destroy the document (step 1010). This access control level is used to identify which users may or may not destroy documents. Additionally, certain users may be allowed to destroy certain types of documents while other users may be allowed to destroy other types of documents. For example, only human-resource users may be allowed to destroy employee records, while technical documents may be destroyed only by programmers.
If the user is allowed to destroy the document, the process initiates a document destruction process (step 1012) with the process terminating thereafter. The document destruction process in step 1012 is similar to the process described in
With reference again to step 1006, if the shredder cannot be used, an error message is presented (step 1014) with the process terminating thereafter. The process also proceeds to step 1014 if the user is not allowed to destroy documents.
The aspects of the present invention also provide an ability to schedule the removal of shredded material from a shredder. The different aspects of the present invention use the information about documents that have been shredded and a shredded history to predict when a shred bin will be full. With this information, the pick up of shredded material may be automatically scheduled. In these examples, the shredder maintains a log of documents that have been shredded for tracking purposes. This log also is used to measure or estimate the amount of shredded material located in the shred bin. The log contains historical information, such as the workload for different days of the week or days of the month. This historical information is used to generate a profile for each shredder that is being managed.
With this usage profile and the amount of shredded material currently present in a shred bin, the processes of the present invention can predict when a bin will be full and need to be emptied. As a result, requests to pick up and dispose of shredded material may be scheduled based on a projected time in the future when the bin will be full and transmit this information to a computer performing scheduling. In this manner, more efficient pick up of shredded material may be achieved. Additionally, the usage profile can be initially set to an expected average or manually set for peak times. The processes of the present invention then modify this profile to reflect the actual usage history.
Turning now to
The process begins by retrieving log information (step 1100). In this example, a log is retrieved from a shredder, such as shredder 300 in
Turning now to
The process begins by updating a usage profile from the retrieved log (step 1200). This usage profile is generated from historical information on the usage of a shredder. This profile may identify usage for different days of the week as well as different days of the month or for different days within a year. The amount of shredded material in the shred bin is identified (step 1202). This identification is made from the information placed into the log retrieved from the shredder. Next, a prediction is made as to when the shred bin will be full (step 1204). Thereafter, a pick up for the shred bin is scheduled (step 1206). In step 1206, the scheduling is made by the data processing system sending a message or request to a pick up service or to a particular department or employee that is responsible for managing pick up of destroyed documents.
In this manner, the destruction of objects may be managed with more granularity and efficiency. The different aspects of the present invention allow for an identification of documents being destroyed by particular shredders. The information regarding the destruction of the document is transferred from a shredder to a computer system. Additionally, these shredders may be computer controlled with restrictions as to what users, what documents, and what times documents may be destroyed. Further, some users may be able to destroy some types of documents during some periods of time while other users may be able to destroy only other types of documents at other times.
The different aspects of the present invention also provide for an ability to automatically create and retrieve certification information for the destruction of particular documents. Further, the different aspects of the present invention allow for document destruction to be prevented when selected documents or users attempt to destroy documents.
The invention can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, the aspects of the present invention may be implemented in hardware and software. The software may include, but is not limited to firmware, resident software, and micro code.
The term “programmed method”, as used herein, is defined to mean one or more computer implemented process steps that are presently performed; or, in the alternatively, one or more process steps that are enabled to be performed at a future point in time. The term programmed method anticipates three alternative forms. First, a programmed method comprises presently performed process steps. Second, a programmed method comprises a computer-readable medium embodying computer instructions, which when executed by a computer perform one or more process steps. Finally, a programmed method comprises a computer system that has been programmed by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof to perform the process steps.
It is to be understood that the term “programmed method” is not to be construed as simultaneously having more than one alternative form, but rather it is to be construed in the truest sense of an alternative form wherein, at any given point in time, only one of the plurality of alternative forms is present. Furthermore, the term “programmed method” is not intended to require that an alternative form must exclude elements of other alternative forms with respect to the detection of a programmed method in an accused device.
Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.
Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Telephone-line modems (including DSL), cable modems and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.
The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
This application is a continuation of application No. 11/242,671, filed Oct. 3, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,593, status pending.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Parent | 11242671 | Oct 2005 | US |
| Child | 11869828 | US |
