Digital certification system

Abstract

A digital certification system (or “analyzer”) provides protection for digital content stored on servers, file sharing systems, hard drives and USB enabled external drives or other digital repositories. The analyzer prevents unauthorized access from both owners/administrators and recipients of digital content being shared through a web based or file sharing type service. The analyzer protects the owner of the shared digital content from unauthorized access, while allowing multiple protection instances to be applied to multiple digital content shares within a digital file hosting and sharing environment. Timers are provided to limit access to digital content at the discretion of the owner of the digital content.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A digital certification system for digital content comprising:
 one or more communication devices that receive a selection identifying a subset of the digital content;   one or more processors, wherein, in operation, the one or more processors:
 establish a first secure session with one or more client devices; 
 receive identification information from the one or more client devices via the first secure session; and 
 verify the identification information and establish a second secure session; 
 wherein the subset of the digital content is accessible to the one or more client devices after verification of the identification information; 
   one or more timers, wherein access to the subset of the digital content is prevented based on the one or more timers.   
     
     
         2 . The digital certification system of  claim 1 , wherein the selection is selected from the group consisting of one or more files, one or more folders, and one or more drives. 
     
     
         3 . The digital certification system of  claim 1 , wherein the digital content not in the subset of the digital content is accessible during the first secure session. 
     
     
         4 . The digital certification system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more timers expire at a preset calendar date and the subset of the digital content is not accessible after the one or more timers expire. 
     
     
         5 . The digital certification system of  claim 1 , wherein the first secure session is established using authentication information received from the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         6 . The digital certification system of  claim 5 , wherein the identification information comprises a token. 
     
     
         7 . The digital certification system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more timers are activated when the identification information is received and verification of the identification information is not permitted after a predefined period of time measured by the one or more timers. 
     
     
         8 . A digital certification system for digital content comprising:
 one or more communication devices that receive a selection identifying a subset of the digital content;   one or more processors, wherein, in operation, the one or more processors:
 establish a first secure session with one or more client devices, wherein the digital content not in the subset of the digital content is accessible to the one or more client devices during the first secure session; 
 receive the identification information from the one or more client devices via the first secure session; and 
 verify the identification information and establish a second secure session; 
 wherein the subset of the digital content is accessible to the one or more client devices during the second secure session; and 
   one or more timers, wherein access to the subset of the digital content is prevented based on the one or more timers.   
     
     
         9 . The digital certification system of  claim 8 , wherein the selection is selected from the group consisting of one or more files, one or more folders, and one or more drives. 
     
     
         10 . The digital certification system of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more timers expire at a preset calendar date and the subset of the digital content is not accessible after the one or more timers expire. 
     
     
         11 . The digital certification system of  claim 8 , wherein the first secure session is established using authentication information received from the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         12 . The digital certification system of  claim 11 , wherein the identification information comprises a token. 
     
     
         13 . The digital certification system of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more timers are activated when the identification information is received and verification of the identification information is not permitted after a predefined period of time measured by the one or more timers. 
     
     
         14 . A method for accessing digital content with a digital certification system comprising:
 receiving a selection identifying a subset of the digital content via one or more communication devices;   establishing a first secure session with one or more client devices;   receiving identification information from the one or more client devices via the first secure session;   verifying the identification information and establishing a second secure session, wherein the subset of the digital content is accessible to the one or more client devices during the second secure session; and   terminating access to the subset of the digital content based on one or more timers.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the selection is selected from the group consisting of one or more files, one or more folders, and one or more drives. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the digital content not in the subset of the digital content is accessible during the first secure session. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more timers expire at a preset calendar date and the subset of the digital content is not accessible after the one or more timers expire. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first secure session is established using authentication information received from the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the identification information comprises a token. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising activating the one or more timers when the identification information is received, wherein verification of the identification information is not permitted after a predefined period of time measured by the one or more timers.