An image forming apparatus that facilitates management of information security policy even for an extended application installed from exterior. A scanning unit scans an original to generate image data of the original. A printing unit prints an image based on image data. A management unit manages applications dynamically installed. At least one of the applications executes a job using at least one of the scanning unit and the printing unit. A setting unit sets an operation mode for the image forming apparatus, based on security settings that are received from an external apparatus. A determination unit determines whether each of the applications supports the security settings. A control unit restricts an operation of an application that the determination unit determines that the application does not support the security settings.

An image forming apparatus that cooperates with a management service and a blockchain service includes a generation unit that generates an embedded image from document information about a document, an acquisition unit that acquires an embedding setting for use in embedding the embedded image in the document, a printing unit that performs printing of the document with the embedded image embedded therein based on the embedding setting, and a registration unit that registers the document information with the blockchain service, wherein, while the embedding setting includes a setting for embedding a plurality of embedded images in the document and the printing unit outputs a printed product with a plurality of embedded images embedded therein, the registration unit registers the document information with the blockchain service in such a way as to prevent the document information from being registered in an overlapping manner in registering the document information.

An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a detector which detects an occurrence of an event; a display which displays notification information regarding the occurred event; and a controller which restricts operation authority over the notification information displayed on the display to a specific user when the notification information corresponds to a notification for the specific user, and makes the operation authority over the notification information di splayed on the display unrestricted when the notification information does not correspond to a notification for the specific user.

An information processing apparatus includes a processor, an information storage unit, a voltage supply unit, and a control unit. The information storage unit is configured to hold information indicating a voltage to be supplied to the processor. The voltage supply unit is configured to supply a predetermined voltage to the processor based on the information stored in the information storage unit. The control unit is configured to detect an alteration in software to be executed by the processor, and to make a setting for supplying a predetermined voltage to a power source unit based on the information stored in the information storage unit.

An information processing apparatus includes a verification unit that performs verification of software to be executed by an execution unit, a retaining unit that retains information indicating a voltage supposed to be applied to the execution unit, a power supply unit that applies a predetermined voltage to the execution unit on the basis of the information, and a clock signal output unit that outputs clock signals having frequencies, and the clock signal output unit outputs a clock signal having a first frequency to the verification unit when verification of the software is performed, outputs a clock signal having a second frequency lower than the first frequency to the execution unit before the predetermined voltage is applied to the execution unit, and outputs a clock signal having a third frequency higher than the second frequency to the execution unit after the predetermined voltage is applied to the execution unit.

An imaging device includes a distributed ledger. Image files are generated by the imaging device. Data for the image files are added to a partial chain hash. When a condition is met by the data with the partial chain hash, a new block is generated for the distributed ledger using the partial chain hash and data from a block header of a previous block. The distributed ledger is used within a printing system. A printing device accessing the distributed ledger can print the images of the image files.

A system includes circuitry configured to embed a digital watermark data in an original image, wherein the original image is divided into a plurality of blocks each block having been embedded with a pattern corresponding to each value of the digital watermark data, store, in a memory, the original image, the digital watermark data embedded in the original image, and an embedding position of the pattern of the digital watermark data in association, detect a pattern in a scanned image of a printed matter, decode the detected pattern to acquire digital watermark data included in the scanned image, align each block between the original image and the scanned image, based on the embedding position of the pattern associated with the original image and a detection position of the pattern detected from the scanned image, and obtain a difference between the original image and the scanned image aligned with each other.

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus that may communicate with a server, which may include: a storage that stores a virus pattern file; and a hardware processor that discriminates, when a transition is made from a state in which power supply to the hardware processor is interrupted to a state in which the power supply to the hardware processor is made, whether the virus pattern file in the storage is a latest version, in communication with the server, includes an updater that updates, when discriminating that the virus pattern file is not the latest version, the virus pattern file to a virus pattern file from the server, discriminates whether a job accepted is a first type of job using data from outside the image forming apparatus or a second type of job using data generated inside the image forming apparatus, and executes the first type after the update by the updater.

A system includes circuitry configured to embed a digital watermark data in an original image, wherein the original image is divided into a plurality of blocks each block having been embedded with a pattern corresponding to each value of the digital watermark data, store, in a memory, the original image, the digital watermark data embedded in the original image, and an embedding position of the pattern of the digital watermark data in association, detect a pattern in a scanned image of a printed matter, decode the detected pattern to acquire digital watermark data included in the scanned image, align each block between the original image and the scanned image, based on the embedding position of the pattern associated with the original image and a detection position of the pattern detected from the scanned image, and obtain a difference between the original image and the scanned image aligned with each other.

An information processing apparatus includes a processor, an information storage unit, a voltage supply unit, and a control unit. The information storage unit is configured to hold information indicating a voltage to be supplied to the processor. The voltage supply unit is configured to supply a predetermined voltage to the processor based on the information stored in the information storage unit. The control unit is configured to detect an alteration in software to be executed by the processor, and to make a setting for supplying a predetermined voltage to a power source unit based on the information stored in the information storage unit.