Secure printing

摘要

In a distributed computing environment, a user is able to send a document to a secure printer (140) in such a way that only a specified intended recipient can print the document. When the user specifies that the document is to be printed securely, a special print job is created in which the document is encrypted using a session key and a bulk encryption algorithm, and the session key is encrypted using the intended recipient's public key. Then, the encrypted session key, the encrypted document and an indication of the intended recipient's identity is transmitted to a print server (130), where the print job is held. When the recipient's smart card (145) is inserted into a smart card reader of the secure printer (140), the recipient's identity, taken from the smart card (145), is transmitted to the print server (130). The print server uses the identity to search for and retrieve documents intended for the recipient. If the recipient is the intended recipient, the encrypted document and encrypted session key are transmitted to the secure printer (140). The secure printer (140) then forward the encrypted session key to the smart card (145), which decrypts the session key using an embedded private key. Then secure printer (140) receives and uses the session key to decrypt the encrypted document and, finally, prints the document for the recipient.