Abstract:
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support safe preview and immediate delivery of a document from a document producer to an end user while protecting the user from accidentally opening the original document if it has been tampered with by an email attacker. First, the original document is submitted to a safe preview server cluster, where a passcode is generated for the document and the document is processed for policy assessments of possible security threats. The document is then encrypted with the generated passcode and provided to the user together with results of the policy assessments and a preview of content of the document for preview upon request. Based on the user's choice, the user can retrieve the passcode from the server and decrypt the document with the passcode wherein the original document is deleted from the safe preview server cluster once it is downloaded.
Abstract:
A device includes a database, a controller, and a PVN router. The database is configured to store network settings information and tracks devices connected to a network. The controller is configured to control access of devices to one another after establishing a connection to the network. The PVN router is configured to receive a provisioning request from a requesting to connect to the network. The PVN router is further configured to transmit a provisioning response to the requesting device based on instantiation of a PVN template received from the database. The PVN template is generated based on the network settings information and further based on the control access determined by the controller. The provisioning response establishes a connection between the requesting device and the network. The requesting device is inaccessible by a subset of devices already connected in the network after the connection is established and vice versa.
Abstract:
An approach is proposed to support Internet traffic inspection to detect and prevent access to blocked websites or resources. First, access requests initiated by users to websites hosted on servers over a network are intercepted by an inspection agent, which identifies and caches a pair of the domain/host name of each website and its corresponding IP address on the Internet to a localized DNS cache. When a newly intercepted access request identifies the website by its IP address only without specifying its domain/host name, the inspection agent looks up the domain name by its IP address from the DNS cache. If no domain name is found, the inspection agent redirects the access request to a proxy server instead of forwarding it to the server hosting the website for further inspection. The proxy server then inspects the IP address to determine if it is a legitimate website or not.
Abstract:
An approach is proposed to support neutralizing real cyber threats to training materials by intercepting, modifying and redistributing active content(s) of an email arrived at a recipient's email account. Specifically, when the recipient triggers an active content such as an URL link embedded in and/or opens an attachment to the email, the triggered active content is synchronously intercepted and examined in real time for potential malicious intent of a phishing attack. If the active content is determined to be malicious, the malicious active content in the email is then disassembled and deactivated while the payload is reconstructed with links and markings for training purposes. The recipient is then provided with an anti-phishing training exercise, wherein content of the training exercise is specifically customized for the recipient based on the reconstructed payload of the received email and/or the recipient's security posture and awareness.
Abstract:
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support bulk authentication of a device associated with a user to all cloud-based services the device intends to access in one transaction instead of authenticating the device against each of the services individually. First, the device generates and transmits to one or more authentication service clusters an authentication request that includes its identification and authentication credentials in order to access to a plurality of services. Upon receiving the authentication request, the authentication service cluster(s) authenticate the device for all of the services to be accessed based on the information in the authentication request. Once the device is authenticated, the authentication service cluster(s) then retrieve entitlement information of the services to be accessed by the device, and identify the service clusters/nodes that the device will connect to for the services with the fastest response time.
Abstract:
Network security administrators are enabled to revoke certificates with their customizable certificate authority reputation policy store which is informed by an independent certificate authority reputation server when a CA is deprecated or has fraudulent certificate generation. The custom policy store overrides trusted root certificate stores accessible to an operating system web networking layer or to a third party browser. Importing revocation lists or updating browsers or operating system is made redundant. The apparatus protects an endpoint from a man-in-the-middle attack when a certificate authority has lost control over certificates used in TLS.
Abstract:
An approach is proposed to support Internet traffic inspection to detect and prevent access to blocked websites or resources. First, access requests initiated by users to websites hosted on servers over a network are intercepted by an inspection agent, which identifies and caches a pair of the domain/host name of each website and its corresponding IP address on the Internet to a localized DNS cache. When a newly intercepted access request identifies the website by its IP address only without specifying its domain/host name, the inspection agent looks up the domain name by its IP address from the DNS cache. If no domain name is found, the inspection agent redirects the access request to a proxy server instead of forwarding it to the server hosting the website for further inspection. The proxy server then inspects the IP address to determine if it is a legitimate website or not.
Abstract:
An approach is proposed to support neutralizing real cyber threats to training materials by intercepting, modifying and redistributing active content(s) of an email arrived at a recipient's email account. Specifically, when the recipient triggers an active content such as an URL link embedded in and/or opens an attachment to the email, the triggered active content is synchronously intercepted and examined in real time for potential malicious intent of a phishing attack. If the active content is determined to be malicious, the malicious active content in the email is then disassembled and deactivated while the payload is reconstructed with links and markings for training purposes. The recipient is then provided with an anti-phishing training exercise, wherein content of the training exercise is specifically customized for the recipient based on the reconstructed payload of the received email and/or the recipient's security posture and awareness.
Abstract:
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support human activity tracking and authenticity verification of human-originated digital assets. First, activities performed by a producer while he/she is constructing a digital asset, e.g., an electronic message, are captured. Information/metadata of the captured activities are then packaged/encapsulated inside the constructed digital asset, wherein such metadata includes but is not limited to mouse and/or keyboard activities, software tools used, and other digital traces of the captured human activities. Once the digital asset is transmitted and received by a consumer, the metadata included in the digital asset is unpacked and analyzed to determine various levels of authenticity of the digital asset with respect to whether the digital asset is originated manually by a human being or automatically by a software program. The consumer may then take actions accordingly based on the level of authenticity of the received digital asset.
Abstract:
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support a sandboxed application plug-in distribution framework. An installation package containing a monitoring plug-in, a display plug-in, and/or third part components is received by a first application running on a first computing device. The first application installs the display plug-in and saves the monitoring plug-in to a centralized database. The first application sends an instruction to a second application running on a second computing device to retrieve the monitoring plug-in from the database and install the monitoring plug-in on the second computing device. Upon receiving a user request, the display plug-in of the first application sends a query to the monitor plug-in of the second application. In response to the query, the monitoring plug-in sends the requested monitored data collected by the second application to the display plug-in, which then formats and presents the monitored data to the user.