An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software.

There is provided a control method of an information processing apparatus that can execute authentication processing with a communication apparatus by authentication schemes. The method includes: performing display control to cause a display unit to display a guide for performing the authentication processing with the communication apparatus in accordance with one of the authentication schemes when the information processing apparatus has obtained information from the communication apparatus; and executing the authentication processing in accordance with an operation performed by a user after the guide is displayed. In the performing the display control, a different guide is displayed in accordance with contents of the obtained information, and in the executing, the authentication processing is executed in accordance with an authentication scheme, which differs in accordance with the contents of the obtained information and corresponds to the displayed guide.

Control circuitry includes a converter and an arbitration unit. The converter is configured to convert a first signal based on a first communication standard to an internal second signal based on a second communication standard and output the internal second signal. The arbitration unit is configured to arbitrate between access of the internal second signal output from the converter and access of an external second signal, which is also based on the second communication standard, input from outside the control circuitry.

The present disclosure discloses methods and systems for detecting an IR security mark in a document based on known color information and halftone frequency information. The method includes receiving a document from a user, including an IR security mark. Then, location information, color information and halftone frequency information are received from the user. The document is scanned. Based on the color information and the location information, the IR security mark is extracted from the scanned document. After this, halftone frequency information of the extracted IR security mark is verified. Based on the verification, text in the extracted IR security mark is identified and is then compared with one or more pre-stored IR security marks to ascertain whether the IR security mark in the document is an authentic security mark.

An information processing apparatus includes a processing section that processes content according to a variably set security state; a first acquisition section that acquires first security information indicative of a security level of the content to be processed by the processing section; a second acquisition section that acquires second security information indicative of a security state of the processing section; and a countermeasure control section that executes dynamic selection from plural predetermined countermeasures which include at least execution of a processing using the acquired first security information and second security information, and executes countermeasure control on the content.

An import unit of an image forming apparatus performs control as follows. If an import target setting value corresponds to a device setting, the import unit determines whether the setting value complies with the security rule. If it is determined that the setting value complies with the security rule, the import unit executes the import processing of the setting value. If it is determined that the setting value does not comply with the security rule, the import unit does not execute the import processing of the setting value. Further, if an import target setting value corresponds to an individual setting, the import unit executes the import processing of the setting value regardless of the security rule.

A facsimile transmission system includes circuitry to receive, from a user, a request for facsimile transmission of a document, and determine which one of first facsimile transmission and second facsimile transmission is to be performed, based on one of an attribute of the user, an attribute of a destination of the facsimile transmission, and an attribute of the document. The first facsimile transmission is transmitting the document by an image forming apparatus, and the second facsimile transmission is transmitting the document by a facsimile server. The circuitry further instructs to perform the one of the first facsimile transmission and the second facsimile transmission.

A print management system includes a printing section, a storage section that stores print information indicating a print status, a determination section that determines whether or not waste paper collection is necessary based on the print information, a print request section that prints a collection form based on a determination result of the determination section, and a collection request section that requests the waste paper collection using the collection form based on the determination result of the determination section.

An import unit of an image forming apparatus performs control as follows. If an import target setting value corresponds to a device setting, the import unit determines whether the setting value complies with the security rule. If it is determined that the setting value complies with the security rule, the import unit executes the import processing of the setting value. If it is determined that the setting value does not comply with the security rule, the import unit does not execute the import processing of the setting value. Further, if an import target setting value corresponds to an individual setting, the import unit executes the import processing of the setting value regardless of the security rule.

A security device providing a security function for an image, a camera device including the same, and a system on chip (SOC) for controlling the camera device are provided. An image transmitting device may include an image processor configured to process an image to be transmitted to an external device, and a security circuit including a key shared with the external device. The security circuit may be configured to generate a tag used for image authentication by using data of a partial region of the image and the key based on region information for selecting the partial region of the image. The image transmitting device may be configured to transmit the tag, generated to correspond to the image, to the external device with data of the image.