Social-graph aware policy suggestion engine

• US 10,536,486 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2017
• Issued: 01/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Inventors: Nair, Jayakrishnan K., Venkateswaran, Prasanna, Hunt, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Leung, Robert B
• Application Number:
  US15/840,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20180103069A1
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/205 involving negotiation or determination of the one or more network security mechanisms to be used, e.g. by negotiation between the client and the server or between peers or by selection according to the capabilities of the entities involved negotiation of communication capabilities H04L69/24

Abstract

Systems, devices and methods are disclosed to assist in configuring devices and policies to protect a regional network (e.g., home network) and its users. Users on the network are monitored to determine appropriate configuration settings and preferences by utilizing a combination of internally configured information and externally gathered information for each user. For example, externally gathered information may include information obtained about a user from one or more social media Internet sites. Automatically obtained information may be used to provide or augment policy information such that a user'"'"'s preference relative to internet content (e.g., content blocking software configuration) may be achieved without requiring an administrator to individually prepare each users security profile and configuration.

Claims

1. A machine-readable storage device or storage disk comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a security appliance to at least:

identify a first user within a first social network corresponding to a first social media environment;

collect first user properties corresponding to the first user, the first user properties based on a first user profile for the first user associated with the first social media environment;

collect device information about at least one of devices or networks to be protected by the security appliance;

request a set of recommended security policies from a security policy provider responsive to the first user properties and the device information, the set of recommended security policies based on modifications by a second user to previous security policy recommendations, the second user associated with second user properties, the second user properties based on a second user profile for the second user associated with at least one of the first social media environment or a different social media environment, the second user properties having similarities with the first user properties; and

in response to receiving the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider, implement the set of recommended security policies.

2. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 1, wherein the modifications are first modifications and the instructions further cause the security appliance to:

detect second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user; and

provide the second modifications to the security policy provider.

3. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the security appliance to:

identify the first user within a second social network;

collect third user properties corresponding to the first user in the second social network;

aggregate the first user properties corresponding to the first user in the first social network and the third user properties corresponding to the first user in the second social network; and

request the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider responsive to the aggregated first and third user properties.

4. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the security appliance to:

identify security software installed on a first device of the at least one of the devices or the networks to be protected by the security appliance; and

request the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider responsive to the first user properties and the identified security software.

5. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 4, wherein the instructions further cause the security appliance to configure the security software responsive to the set of recommended security policies.

6. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 1, wherein the modifications are first modifications and the instructions further cause the security appliance to:

detect second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user; and

modify a recommended set of security policies for a third user based on the second modifications.

7. The machine-readable storage device or storage disk of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the security appliance to send the second modifications and the first user properties to the security policy provider.

8. A security appliance, comprising:

a processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

identify a first user within a first social network corresponding to a first social media environment;

collect first user properties corresponding to the first user in the first social network, the first user properties based on a first user profile for the first user associated with the first social media environment;

collect device information about at least one of devices or networks to be protected by the security appliance;

request a set of recommended security policies from a security policy provider responsive to the collected first user properties and the device information, the set of recommended security policies based on modifications by a second user to previous security policy recommendations, the second user associated with second user properties, the second user properties based on a second user profile for the second user associated with at least one of the first social media environment or a different social media environment, the second user properties having commonalities with the first user properties; and

implement the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider.

9. The security appliance of claim 8, wherein the modifications are first modifications and the processor is to:

detect second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user; and

provide the second modifications to the security policy provider.

10. The security appliance of claim 8, wherein the device information includes information about security software installed on a first device of the devices to be protected by the security appliance.

11. The security appliance of claim 10, wherein the processor is to send configuration instructions to the security software responsive to the set of recommended security policies.

12. The security appliance of claim 10, wherein the processor is to:

identify the first user within a second social network;

collect third user properties corresponding to the first user in both the first and second social networks;

aggregate the first and third user properties; and

request the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider based on the aggregated first and third user properties.

13. The security appliance of claim 8, wherein the modifications are first modifications, and the processor is to:

detect second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user; and

modify the set of recommended security policies for a third user based on the second modifications.

14. The security appliance of claim 13, wherein the processor is to send the modified set of recommended security policies and the first user properties to the security policy provider.

15. A method of configuring a security gateway appliance, the method comprising:

identifying a first user within a first social network corresponding to a first social media environment;

collecting first user properties corresponding to the first user in the first social network, the first user properties based on a first user profile for the first user associated with the first social media environment;

collecting hardware information about at least one of devices or networks to be protected by the security gateway appliance;

requesting a set of recommended security policies from a security policy provider responsive to the collected first user properties and hardware information, the set of recommended security policies based on modifications by a second user to previous security policy recommendations, the second user associated with second user properties, the second user properties based on a second user profile for the second user associated with at least one of the first social media environment or a different social media environment, the second user properties associated with the first user properties; and

implementing the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider on the security gateway appliance.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the modifications are first modifications, the method further including:

detecting second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user; and

providing the second modifications to the security policy provider.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the hardware information includes information about security software installed on a first device of the devices to be protected by the security gateway appliance.

18. The method of claim 17, further including sending configuration instructions to the security software responsive to the set of recommended security policies.

19. The method of claim 15, further including:

identifying the first user within a second social network;

collecting third user properties corresponding to the first user in the second social network;

aggregating the first and third user properties; and

requesting the set of recommended security policies from the security policy provider based on the aggregated first and third user properties.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the modifications are first modifications, the method further including:

detecting second modifications to the recommended security policies by the first user;

modifying the recommended set of security policies based on the second modifications; and

sending the modified recommended set of security policies and the first user properties to the security policy provider.