DATA COLLABORATION

• US 20170054756A1
• Filed: 08/21/2015
• Published: 02/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PushPull Technology Limited
• Original Assignee: PushPull Technology Limited
• Inventors: JONES, David, ECCLESTON, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 10,742,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A method and system are provided for enabling collaborative access to a data object. The method comprises establishing an access control policy, the access control policy defining at least one collaborative condition under which access to the data object is permissible, monitoring a plurality of users for compliance with the collaborative condition and providing access to the data object after a predetermined number of the users meet the at least one collaborative condition.

Claims

1. A method for enabling collaborative access to a data object, comprising:

establishing an access control policy, the access control policy defining at least one collaborative condition under which access to the data object is permissible;

monitoring a plurality of users for compliance with the collaborative condition; and

providing access to the data object after a predetermined number of the users meet the at least one collaborative condition.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising preventing access to the data object when the predetermined number of users no longer meet the at least one collaborative condition.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein access to the data object is prevented when a predefined time period has elapsed since the predetermined number of users met the at least one collaborative condition.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of monitoring may comprise regularly polling one or more devices associated with the users to assess compliance with the collaborative condition.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of monitoring may comprise monitoring one or more signals emitted by devices associated with the users.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the collaborative condition comprises a geographical condition.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the collaborative condition comprises an absolute geographical condition.

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein the collaborative condition comprises a relative geographical condition.

9. A method according to claim 6, wherein monitoring for compliance with the collaborative condition may comprise determining the geographic location of devices associated with the users using one or more of:

global positioning system (GPS), general packet radio service (GPRS), beacon or internet protocol (IP) address information.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the access control policy further comprises at least one temporal condition, wherein the step of providing access to the data object may be dependent on compliance with the temporal condition.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data object is encrypted and the step of providing access to the data object comprises sharing an encryption key.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the data object is encrypted and the encryption key is split using a secret sharing algorithm and its parts distributed between the users, wherein the predetermined number of the users represents the number of parts of the encryption key required to access the data object.

13. A method according to claim 1, comprising sharing the data object prior to the step of monitoring the plurality of users for compliance with the collaborative condition.

14. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 1.

15. A system for enabling collaborative access to a data object, comprising processing means configured to:

establish an access control policy, the access control policy defining at least one collaborative condition under which access to the data object is permissible;

monitor a plurality of users for compliance with the collaborative condition; and

provide access to the data object after a predetermined number of the users meet the at least one collaborative condition.