SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VALIDATING A LOCATION OF AN UNTRUSTED DEVICE

• US 20110138443A1
• Filed: 12/03/2009
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OL Security LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Recursion Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Gerard, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,522,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals

Abstract

In a system of mobile agents operating in a region of interest, it may be necessary to validate the position of an untrusted device prior to allowing the untrusted device to perform agent functions within the region of interest. Trusted mobile agents within the region of interest may activate wireless access points with randomly generated identifiers. The untrusted device may be instructed to provide a list of identifiers of visible wireless access points to confirm that the untrusted device is within the ROI.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a validation requirement for an untrusted device in a region of interest in response to a participation request;

instructing the untrusted device to identify at least one wireless access point in the region of interest;

receiving, from the untrusted device, a list identifying the at least one wireless access point in the region of interest with a corresponding at least one identifier; and

validating the at least one wireless access point in response to the at least one identifier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein validating the at least one wireless access point comprises establishing the untrusted device as a trusted device in response to the at least one identifier.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising sharing at least one agent resource with the untrusted device after establishing the untrusted device as a trusted device.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising activating the at least one wireless access point in response to identifying the validation requirement.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising deactivating the at least one wireless access point in response to receiving the at least one identifier from the untrusted device.

7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

locating each trusted agent within the region of interest; and

activating any wireless access point associated with any trusted agent in the region of interest.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the participation request is configured to request approval for the untrusted device to participate with the trusted device in the region of interest.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising determining that the participation request is configured to indicate that the untrusted device is located within the region of interest.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising accessing the at least one wireless access point from a mobile device.

5. (canceled)

11. A trusted device, comprising:

a memory device configured to store instructions defining an agent application;

a processing device configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory device to;

identify a validation requirement in response to receiving a request to participate with the trusted device in a region of interest from an untrusted device;

request the untrusted device identify at least one wireless access point in a region including the untrusted device;

receive, from the untrusted device, at least one wireless access point identifier configured to identify the at least one wireless access point in the region including the untrusted device in response to the request to identify;

identify at least one wireless access point in the region of interest; and

validate the untrusted device in response to the at least one wireless access point identifier corresponding to the at least one wireless access point in the region of interest.

12. The trusted device according to claim 11,

wherein the at least one wireless access point is configured to operate in the region of interest;

and

wherein the processing device is further configured to locate the untrusted device as being within the region of interest in response to the at least one wireless access point identifier corresponding to the at least one access point in the region of interest.

14. The trusted device according to claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

activate the at least one wireless access point.

16. The trusted device according to claim 14, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

identify a location of the untrusted mobile device in response to receiving the request to participate from the untrusted device; and

send an activation command to the untrusted device in response to the location of the untrusted device being within the region of interest.

19. The trusted device according to claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to command the untrusted device to identify all wireless access points visible to the untrusted device.

13. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

17-18. -18. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

21. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that configure a processing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying a validation requirement for an untrusted device in response to receiving a participation request from the untrusted device;

instructing the untrusted device to identify at least one wireless access point visible to the untrusted device;

receiving, from the untrusted device, a list identifying the at least one wireless access point with a corresponding at least one identifier; and

validating the untrusted device in response to the at least one identifier corresponding to a wireless access point in a region of interest.

22. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising establishing the untrusted device as a trusted device in response to the at least one identifier corresponding to the wireless access point in the region of interest.

23. The computer-readable storage device of claim 22, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising sharing at least one agent resource with the untrusted device after establishing the untrusted device as a trusted device.

24. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising activating the at least one wireless access point in response to identifying the validation requirement.

25. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising deactivating the at least one wireless access point in response to receiving the at least one identifier from the untrusted device.

26. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising:

locating each trusted agent within the region of interest; and

activating any wireless access point associated with any trusted agent in the region of interest.

27. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the participation request is configured to request approval for the untrusted device to participate in the region of interest.

28. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising determining that the participation request is configured to indicate that the untrusted device is located within the region of interest.

29. The computer-readable storage device of claim 21, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising accessing the at least one wireless access point from a mobile device.

30. A method, comprising:

transmitting a participation request from an untrusted device to a trusted device operating in a first region;

identifying a wireless access point located in a second region within communicable range of the untrusted device in response to the participation request;

transmitting an identifier corresponding to the wireless access point from the untrusted device to the trusted device; and

receiving validation from the trusted device in response to the identifier corresponding to at least one of a plurality of wireless access points operating in the first region.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising activating the wireless access point located in the second region using the untrusted device.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising randomly generating the identifier each time the wireless access point located in the second region is activated.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising transmitting a location of the untrusted device to the trusted device.

34. An untrusted device, comprising:

a memory device configured to store instructions defining an agent application;

a processing device configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory device to;

transmit a participation request from an untrusted device to a trusted device operating in a first region;

identify a wireless access point located in a second region within communicable range of the untrusted device in response to the participation request;

transmit an identifier corresponding to the wireless access point from the untrusted device to the trusted device; and

receive validation from the trusted device in response to the identifier corresponding to at least one of a plurality of wireless access points operating in the first region.

35. The untrusted device of claim 34, wherein the processing device is further configured to activate the wireless access point located in the second region using the untrusted device.

36. The untrusted device of claim 34, wherein the processing device is further configured to randomly generate the identifier each time the wireless access point located in the second region is activated.

37. The untrusted device of claim 34, wherein the processing device is further configured to transmit a location of the untrusted device to the trusted device.

38. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that configure a processing device to perform operations comprising:

transmitting a participation request from an untrusted device to a trusted device operating in a first region;

identifying a wireless access point located in a second region within communicable range of the untrusted device in response to the participation request;

transmitting an identifier corresponding to the wireless access point from the untrusted device to the trusted device; and

receiving validation from the trusted device in response to the identifier corresponding to at least one of a plurality of wireless access points operating in the first region.

39. The computer-readable storage device of claim 38, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising activating the wireless access point located in the second region using the untrusted device.

40. The computer-readable storage device of claim 38, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising executing a bootstrap application using the untrusted device.

41. The computer-readable storage device of claim 38, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising randomly generating the identifier each time the wireless access point located in the second region is activated.

42. The computer-readable storage device of claim 38, wherein the processing device is configured to perform operations further comprising transmitting a location of the untrusted device to the trusted device.