Method and Apparatus for an End User Identity Protection Suite

• US 20100132043A1
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HID Global Corporation (Assa Abloy AB)
• Original Assignee: Digitalpersona Incorporated (Assa Abloy AB)
• Inventors: Lipin, Sergey, Bjorn, Vance, Santini, Fabio, Katkov, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 8,621,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/46 by designing passwords or checking the strength of passwords
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231

Abstract

A method comprising an indicator showing an overall security status of a user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented identity protection system comprising:

a dashboard for user identity protection, which includes at least one identity tool to evaluate security of a user outside the computer; and

a biometric security mechanism to ensure that only the user can access the dashboard, the biometric security mechanism tying the user'"'"'s physical biometric data to their digital identity.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a security status display mechanism to provide a security state to the user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identity tool comprises a password evaluator, the password evaluator to evaluate a plurality of saved passwords separately and jointly.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the identity tool comprises a credit protection service.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the credit protection service comprises:

a credit monitoring service which provides one or more of;

credit reports, credit scores, credit locks, and account access records.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the credit protection service comprises a onetime credit card number generator provided by a third party, to enable the user to generate a onetime credit card number and utilize it for purchases.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identity tool comprises a data protection tool, the data protection providing one or more of:

a file time stamp service, a virtual safe deposit box, and communications linking mechanism to link communications with a validated user identity.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an identity browser providing a snapshot of the user'"'"'s digital identities, and categorizing tools by various types of identities.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the identities comprise one or more of:

online identities, healthcare identities, financial identities, credit identities, and social networking identities.

10. An end user identity protection suite (IPS) comprising:

a identity validation system to evaluate a security level of at least one identity tool, the identity tool not related to computer security but rather to the user'"'"'s identity; and

a security signal logic to generate a security status signal indicating an overall security state of the user, the security status signal comprising a combination of the security levels of each of the plurality of identity tools.

11. The IPS of claim 10, further comprising:

a secured storage to maintain a plurality of passwords accessible via a single release mechanism;

an individual password evaluator to evaluate the plurality of passwords for strength;

a joint password evaluator to evaluate the plurality of passwords in conjunction; and

the security signal logic using the data from the individual password evaluator and the joint password evaluator to generate the security status signal.

12. The IPS of claim 11, wherein the individual password evaluator utilizes one or more of:

password length, password complexity, and password maturity; and

the joint password evaluator utilizes an evaluation of password commonality across the plurality of passwords.

13. The IPS of claim 11, wherein the single release mechanism comprises one or more of the following:

fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, iris identification, voice recognition, keystroke evaluation, a password, a token, and a smart card.

14. The IPS of claim 10, wherein the security status signal comprises a single color indicator to provide continuous visual feedback to the user indicating the security state of the user.

15. The IPS of claim 14, further comprising:

a plurality of security status signals, one for each of the plurality of applications.

16. The IPS of claim 10, further comprising:

a third party evaluator interface to receive data from an external application regarding an evaluation of a security tool, the third party evaluator interface to generate a security level evaluation for the external application.

17. The IPS of claim 10, further comprising:

a user interface to at least one application, the user interface enabling a user to control the at least one application from the IPS.

18. The IPS of claim 17, wherein the user interface provides a link to the native interface of the at least one application.

19. The IPS of claim 10, further comprising:

an identity display to provide a desktop visual display of the security signal, the desktop visual display visible when the IPS is not an active application.

20. A computer-implemented method for an end user identity protection suite comprising:

analyzing a security level based on at least one security application; and

generating an overall security state value for the user; and

based on the overall security state value, generating a visual display to provide an at-a-glance indicator to the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one security application includes one or more of:

encryption, password security, and financial security applications.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

providing an interface to the at least one security application through the end user identity protection suite, to provide a single interface to access security applications.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the visual display is visible to the user when the end user identity protection suite is not an active application.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

evaluating security of a plurality of stored passwords, the evaluation including evaluating each password separately and jointly; and

generating a security state value for the plurality of stored passwords.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

displaying a security state value for each of the applications evaluated, in addition to the overall security state value.

26. A computer-implemented system for an end user protection suite comprising:

an identity validation system including at least two evaluators, each of which evaluates the security state of an application; and

a security signal logic to generate an overall security state signal based on the security state of the applications, as determined by the identity validation system.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the evaluators comprise one or more of:

a password evaluator, a third party evaluator interface, and an encryption evaluator.