SECURITY INFORMATION SHARING BETWEEN APPLICATIONS

• US 20150261951A1
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abuelsaad, Tamer E., Hoyos, Carlos A., Nassar, Nader M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,146,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action

Abstract

A system and method for sharing data and a risk assessment of the data comprises receiving data in a first application and obtaining a risk level of the data, performing an action in the first application necessitating passing a message comprising at least the data and the risk level to a second application, passing the message from the first application to the second application, receiving, at the second application, the message, determining by said second application whether the risk level exceeds a predetermined threshold, when the risk level exceed the predetermined threshold, implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application using the data in accordance with the protocol, and when the risk level does not exceed the predetermined threshold, running the second application using the data.

Claims

1. A method for sharing data and a risk assessment of the data comprises:

receiving data in a first application and obtaining a risk level of the data;

performing an action in the first application necessitating passing a message comprising at least the data and the risk level to a second application;

passing the message from the first application to the second application;

receiving, at the second application, the message;

determining by said second application whether the risk level exceeds a predetermined threshold;

when the risk level exceed the predetermined threshold, implement a protocol to perform actions in the second application, said actions comprising at least using the data in accordance with the protocol; and

when the risk level does not exceed the predetermined threshold, running the second application using the data,

wherein a programmed processor performs one or more of performing an action in the first application, determining the risk level, performing actions in the second application, and running the second application.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first application is an email client and performing an action necessitating passing a message is clicking a URL in a selected email message.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application comprises displaying an error message and terminating the second application.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application comprises limiting functionality of the second application and running the second application.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein limiting functionality of the second application comprises one or more of disabling Java scripts, preventing file downloading, preventing caching, implementing sandbox mode, implementing paranoid mode, and quarantining.

6. A system for sharing data and a risk assessment of the data, the system comprising:

a memory device; and

a hardware processor coupled to the memory device, the processor configured to;

receive data in a first application and obtain a risk level of the data;

perform an action in the first application necessitating passing a message comprising at least the data and the risk level to a second application;

pass the message from the first application to the second application;

receive, at the second application, the message;

determine, using the second application, whether the risk level exceeds a predetermined threshold;

when the risk level exceeds the predetermined threshold, implement a protocol to perform actions in accordance with the protocol; and

when the risk assessment does not exceed the predetermined threshold, run the second application using the data

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the first application is an email client and performing an action necessitating passing a message is clicking a URL in a selected email message.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein the second application is one of a web browser, an app store, a file viewer, a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, a presentation program, and an image viewer.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein the actions performed comprise displaying an error message on a display device and terminating the second application.

10. The system according to claim 6, wherein the actions performed comprise limit functionality of the second application and run the second application.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein limit functionality of the second application comprises one or more of disabling Java scripts, preventing file downloading, preventing caching, implementing sandbox mode, implementing paranoid mode, and quarantining.

12. The system according to claim 6, wherein the first and second applications reside on a mobile device.

13. The system according to claim 6, wherein one or both of the first and second applications reside on a distributed computing network.

14. A computer program product for using a multi-user operating system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions run by the processing circuit for performing method steps for sharing data and a risk assessment of the data comprises:

receiving data in a first application and obtaining a risk level of the data;

performing an action necessitating passing a message comprising at least the data and the risk level to a second application;

passing the message from the first application to the second application;

receiving the message at the second application;

determining, using the second application, whether the risk level exceeds a predetermined threshold;

when the risk assessment exceeds the predetermined threshold, implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application, said actions comprising at least using the data in accordance with the protocol; and

when the risk assessment does not exceed the predetermined threshold, running the second application using the data.

15. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein the first application is an email client and performing an action necessitating passing a message is clicking a URL in a selected email message.

16. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application comprises displaying an error message and terminating the second application.

17. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein implementing a protocol to perform actions in the second application comprises limiting functionality of the second application and running the second application with the limited functionality.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein limiting functionality of the second application comprises one or more of disabling Java scripts, preventing file downloading, preventing caching, implementing sandbox mode, implementing paranoid mode, and quarantining.