CyberGrant patent US 12,596,770: share files with unknown recipients

Sharing files with people you have never met: inside CyberGrant’s US patent

Forty-eight percent of the breaches analyzed in the Verizon DBIR 2026 involve a third party, a 60% increase over the previous year. Behind many of those cases sit entirely legitimate exchanges: a due diligence process, a vendor awaiting qualification, outside counsel, a consultant. Documents that have to leave the company for the work to move forward.

Before any of them can be protected, one question has to be answered: who is on the other side?

For decades, sharing a document securely meant identifying the recipient first. A corporate account, a known address, a digital certificate, a key exchange. Some form of verifiable identity had to exist before the file could move.

On April 7, 2026, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Cyber Grant patent US 12,596,770 B2, covering an invention by Valerio Pastore, founder of CyberGrant. The underlying principle runs the other way: the recipient does not need to be known before the document is sent. Access is decided at the moment someone tries to open it.

The approach solves a practical problem for enterprises, and it deserves attention from anyone evaluating new technology for investment, partnership, or product decisions.

Key takeaways

• A granted US patent. US 12,596,770 B2 was issued on April 7, 2026 and covers a secure sharing system that does not require the recipient to be known or registered in advance.
• The document travels already protected. The encrypted file is embedded inside an ordinary host document such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF, and stays unreadable until access is authorized.
• The sender keeps control. Every access request can be reviewed and approved, with permissions ranging from view only to download, print, and edit.
• An international patent family. It includes the European grant EP 4427154 B1 from September 2025 and the US grant US 12,596,770 B2 from April 2026, plus filings in Australia and Canada.
• A path that started in Italy. The first application was filed on November 3, 2021, before moving to the international PCT procedure.
• The patent and quantum-safe encryption are two different things. The patent covers the sharing and authorization mechanism. FileGrant’s cryptographic protection operates at a separate layer.

Why secure sharing has always required knowing the recipient

Most protected sharing tools assume the recipient already has an account, sits in the corporate directory, runs the right software, or has previously exchanged the keys needed for secure communication.

In practice, companies routinely need to share documents with people who are not yet part of their digital ecosystem.

Think of a lawyer sending a draft contract to a counterparty they have never met, an M&A team opening a data room for a prospective buyer, or a procurement group receiving documentation from a vendor still going through qualification.

In situations like these, security starts to compete with practicality. To avoid slowing the work down, the document ends up attached to an email, uploaded to a cloud service, or sent through a chat app. When the protection covers only the transmission channel, the recipient opens a file that is freely readable on arrival.

We examined that gap in The perimeter has already fallen: companies keep investing in perimeter security while their data crosses that perimeter every day for entirely legitimate operational reasons.

What US patent 12,596,770 B2 claims

The patent is titled Secure file sharing system and method. It describes a system built from three main elements: a management device running symmetric encryption software, the sender’s device, and the recipient’s device.

What sits at the center is how the document is delivered. The encrypted file, together with a link to the management device, is embedded inside an ordinary host document. Making the content readable requires an authorization procedure that involves the sender.

The recipient can therefore be unknown to the system at the moment the document is sent. The attempt to open it is what triggers the access request.

The value of the approach lies in separating two steps that conventional tools tend to bind together: sending the document, and deciding who may read it.

How the system works, step by step

1. The document is encrypted. The confidential content is protected with a symmetric key, which the system manages according to the described mechanism.
2. The file is embedded in a host document. The encrypted content and the link to the management service are wrapped inside a common file format: .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, or .pdf.
3. The recipient receives the attachment. The document does not display the confidential content. It signals that a protected file is present and offers a way to request access.
4. The recipient verifies their identity. The procedure described uses a one-time code sent to an email address or a phone number.
5. The sender reviews the request. A notification arrives, and the sender can approve or deny access, assigning the permissions the system supports: view only, download, print, or edit.
6. The content becomes readable after authorization. The management device performs the decryption. The recipient does not necessarily have to install a dedicated application.

The difference from a password-protected link is substantial. A password can be forwarded, and whoever receives it opens the document without anyone knowing. Here, passing the file along generates a request the sender can see, and decline.

A Trojan horse in reverse

In the myth, the Trojan horse hid dangerous contents inside an apparently harmless shell. Here the logic is inverted: an ordinary document carries confidential content that stays protected until access is granted.

The approach lets files move through familiar tools and processes without requiring the recipient to create an account or install new software before the document arrives.

The operational benefit is clear. Protection travels with the content, while sharing continues to fit the workflows people already use.

FileGrant and the patented mechanism: how it becomes a product

FileGrant, CyberGrant’s file-centric platform, brings this approach into enterprise processes. Documents are protected through encryption and can be shared with external recipients while access stays controlled and revocable after sending.

Two technology layers are worth keeping separate, because they answer different problems.

US patent 12,596,770 B2 protects the encapsulation and authorization mechanism, not the algorithm. FileGrant’s quantum-safe encryption, built on CRYSTALS-Kyber (NIST FIPS 203, ML-KEM, August 2024), is a distinct layer, covered in our guide to post-quantum encrypted file sharing.

The two layers address different needs: one governs the process of gaining access to a document, the other protects the content cryptographically. Evaluating the technology properly means considering them separately, and looking at how each is implemented and integrated in the product.

What it changes for a CISO

For a Chief Information Security Officer, the value here is not the novelty of the patent. The question is whether it reduces the risk attached to document exchanges the company cannot simply stop.

1. Vendor and third-party onboarding

The Verizon DBIR 2026 reports that 48% of the breaches analyzed involve a third party. A share of the document exchange with suppliers happens before those suppliers are fully integrated into company systems, at a point when access management and security policies are harder to enforce.

That window matters, as the breach at Santander’s cloud vendor showed. We reconstructed it here.

2. Sharing with external parties who are not in the system

Legal matters, M&A, arbitration, and competitive tenders routinely involve people with no corporate account, and often no prospect of ever having one. Being able to share a document without standing up a new collaboration environment first can simplify the process considerably.

We covered the broader problem in Preventing data loss in external collaboration scenarios.

3. Traceability of authorizations

Knowing that a file was sent is not the same as knowing who authorized access to it, when, and with what permissions. A process that records both the request and the sender’s decision provides material for event reconstruction and internal review.

In regulated environments, including those shaped by NIS2 and DORA, having that information available supports access governance and process documentation. Its practical value depends on which logs exist, how long they are retained, and how well they integrate with the organization’s audit tooling.

The approach does not require replacing existing enterprise tools. SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 continue to do their job, while document protection is evaluated against the specific sharing and control requirements at hand.

The contrarian choice: keeping a person in the loop

What makes the patent interesting is not only technical. It is how the decision to grant access gets made.

Most security strategies work to reduce human involvement through automated authentication, zero trust models, and increasingly sophisticated detection. Here the sender keeps an explicit role at the moment someone asks to read a confidential document.

This is not a rejection of automation. It recognizes that in certain situations the decision to share a document depends on information the system does not necessarily hold: the context of a deal, the stage of a negotiation, the expected identity of a counterparty, the sensitivity of a specific document.

Turning that decision into a digital step that is traceable, fast, and revocable is a deliberate design choice. The sender is not left trusting the integrity of a channel or the secrecy of a password. They can act on the access request itself.

An Italian invention recognized in the United States

The global cybersecurity market is organized around established technology hubs, from the large American vendors to the specialized European and Israeli ecosystems. Against that backdrop, USPTO recognition of an invention developed by an Italian founder is worth a closer look.

The path began in Italy on November 3, 2021, reached the European grant in September 2025, and the American grant in April 2026. Four and a half years of examination, with examiners working through the prior art in encryption and document sharing.

Today the approach is already running in FileGrant, the CyberGrant platform that implements the patented mechanism and lets companies, public administrations, and professionals share confidential documents with external parties while keeping control over access.

Frequently asked questions

What is CyberGrant’s US patent 12,596,770 B2?

US 12,596,770 B2 is the patent Secure file sharing system and method, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on April 7, 2026 to Cyber Grant Inc., for an invention by Valerio Pastore. It covers a system in which an encrypted file is embedded inside an ordinary host document and is decrypted only after an authorization procedure in which the sender approves the access request. At the moment of sending, the recipient can be unknown to the system.

Can an encrypted document be shared with a recipient who has no account?

Yes. That is the core of US patent 12,596,770 B2. The recipient receives what looks like an ordinary Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF file, containing the encrypted document and a link to the management service. To gain access they identify themselves with a one-time code sent to an email address or phone number, and the sender approves or denies the request. No account creation and no software installation is required on the recipient’s device.

How does the patented mechanism differ from a password-protected link?

A password can be forwarded, and whoever receives it opens the document without the sender knowing. In the system patented by CyberGrant, every attempt to open the file generates an authorization request that reaches the sender, who sees who is asking for access and can refuse. Approval also assigns a permission level that distinguishes view only, download, print, and edit.

Does the patent cover quantum-safe encryption?

No, these are two distinct layers. US patent 12,596,770 B2 protects the mechanism for embedding the encrypted file and the authorization procedure, not the encryption algorithm. FileGrant’s quantum-safe protection is based on CRYSTALS-Kyber, the NIST FIPS 203 standard (ML-KEM) published in August 2024, and addresses how long encrypted content resists decryption, following the harvest now, decrypt later logic.

In which countries is the patent family granted?

The family originates from the Italian application IT 102021000027959 filed on November 3, 2021, continues with the international application PCT/IB2022/059336 filed on September 30, 2022, and includes two grants: EP 4427154 B1 in Europe, granted on September 3, 2025, and US 12,596,770 B2 in the United States, granted on April 7, 2026. The family also includes the filings AU 2022381896 A1 in Australia and CA 3235596 A1 in Canada.

How does the patent relate to FileGrant?

FileGrant is CyberGrant’s file-centric platform where the patented mechanism is implemented: documents are encrypted on upload, shared with recipients outside the organization, and revocable after sending. The patent describes the method, FileGrant is the product that makes it usable inside business processes, alongside the extensions that bring the same protection to email, credentials, AI, and SharePoint.

What makes the CyberGrant patent distinctive?

US patent 12,596,770 B2 describes a secure sharing system in which the encrypted file is embedded in an ordinary host document and access to the content is conditioned on the sender’s authorization. The recipient can receive the document without being registered in the system beforehand. Sharing can therefore extend to external parties while control over the access request stays with the sender.