Christopher T Grant

US Patent:

20200278934, Sep 3, 2020

Filed:

Feb 28, 2019

Appl. No.:

16/289000

Inventors:

- Houston TX, US
Christopher Anthony Grant Hillier - Ft. Collins CO, US

International Classification:

G06F 12/1018
G06F 16/903
G06F 16/17
G06F 21/62

Abstract:

A method for anonymizing documents before publication is provided. The method includes identifying regular expressions configured to match strings to be anonymized in a document, selecting a readable identifier as an anonymized reference for a string replacement, searching the document for a match string that fits the regular expression, hashing the match string using a collision resistant, deterministic, non-inverting cryptographic hashing function, and comparing a cryptographic hash of the match string with a database including multiple previous hashes and multiple corresponding readable identifiers. When none of the previous hashes matching the cryptographic hash, the method includes creating a new database record including the cryptographic hash, incrementing a counter in the readable identifier and associating the readable identifier with the new database record, and replacing the match string with the readable identifier, throughout the document. A system and a medium storing instructions to perform the above method are also provided.