A Secure Printing System for Ubiquitous Network

This paper proposes a new secure printing system for networked environments. The system is designed to protect the data from being tapped, control the time of printing and pick up of the printed paper, control the user who receives the printed-paper, avoid leaks of information by making a mistake in the selection of the output printer, and support copyright protection and a strictly limit the number of copies being printed. To accomplish its aims, the system encrypts all communications and prints data. Also, it double encrypts the key used for encrypting the print data by using the public keys of the authorized printer to output the data and the authorized user to receive the printed-paper. Furthermore, it doesn´t send any print data to the receiver, but only a key, and forces the receiver of the printed-paper to be in front of the printer to starts decryption and output of the print data. The system has been tested on-site showing promising results.