System and Method for Evaluation in a Collaborative Security Assurance System

• US 20130061327A1
• Filed: 09/01/2011
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SecureWorks Corp. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Thomas, Ashley, Paranjpe, Ashwin
• Granted Patent: US 8,925,091 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis

Abstract

A security assurance system includes a back-end application and a computing resource. The back-end application receives a selection of a network security product that is associated with a protected network, and receives a selection of a threat from a plurality of threats stored on the security assurance system. The computing resource launches an evaluation of the security product based upon the threat, and reports to a user of the security assurance system a result of the evaluation.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating a protected network, the method comprising:

selecting in a security assurance system a network security product, wherein the security product is associated with the protected network;

selecting a threat from a plurality of threats stored on the security assurance system;

launching on the security assurance system an evaluation of the security product based upon the threat; and

reporting to a user of the security assurance system a result of the evaluation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in launching the evaluation the method further comprises:

launching a simulation of the security product on a computing resource; and

transmitting the threat to the simulation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the compute resource is allocated in a cloud based computing environment.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the simulation of the security product successfully blocked the threat; and

wherein reporting the result is in response to the determining.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the security assurance system a configuration for the network security product in response to selecting the network security product, wherein the configuration is associated with the protected network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the evaluation of the security product includes evaluating the configuration.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the threat is selected based on a recommendation by the security assurance system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the recommendation is based upon a popularity of the threat.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the recommendation is based upon a usage of the protected network.

10. A security assurance system comprising:

a back-end application; and

a computing resource;

wherein the back-end application is operable to;

receive a selection of a network security product, wherein the security product is associated with a protected network; and

receive a selection of a threat from a plurality of threats stored on the security assurance system; and

wherein the computing resource is operable to;

launch an evaluation of the security product based upon the threat; and

report to a user of the security assurance system a result of the evaluation.

11. The security assurance system of claim 10, wherein in launching the evaluation the computing resource is further operable to:

launch a simulation of the security product;

transmit the threat to the simulation; and

determine that the simulation of the security product successfully blocked the threat.

12. The security assurance system of claim 10, wherein the back-end application is further operable to:

receive a selection of a configuration for the network security product, wherein the configuration is associated with the protected network; and

wherein the evaluation of the security product includes evaluating the configuration.

13. The security assurance system of claim 10, wherein the back-end application is further operable to recommend the threat.

14. Machine-executable code for an information handling system, wherein the machine-executable code is embedded in a non-transitory storage medium and includes instructions for carrying out a method, the method comprising:

selecting in a security assurance system a network security product, wherein the security product is associated with the protected network;

selecting a threat from a plurality of threats stored on the security assurance system;

launching on the security assurance system an evaluation of the security product based upon the threat; and

reporting to a user of the security assurance system a result of the evaluation.

15. The machine-executable code of claim 14, wherein in launching the evaluation the method further comprises:

launching a simulation of the security product on a computing resource; and

transmitting the threat to the simulation.

16. The machine-executable code of claim 15, wherein the compute resource is allocated in a cloud based computing environment.

17. The machine-executable code of claim 15, the method further comprising:

determining that the simulation of the security product successfully blocked the threat; and

wherein reporting the result is in response to the determining.

18. The machine-executable code of claim 14, the method further comprising:

receiving from the security assurance system a configuration for the network security product in response to selecting the network security product, wherein the configuration is associated with the protected network.

19. The machine-executable code of claim 18, wherein the evaluation of the security product includes evaluating the configuration.

20. The machine-executable code of claim 14, wherein the threat is selected based on a recommendation by the security assurance system.