Data/presence insurance tools and techniques

• US 7,386,463 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2001
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Miralink Corporation
• Inventors: McCabe, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; C. Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): KOPPIKAR, VIVEK D
• Application Number:
  US09/925,938
• Publication Number:
  US 20020095317A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,497 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

Methods for insurance of online presence (202) and/or data (200) are described. An insurer (302) contracts with an insured entity (304) in an agreement (308) under which a premium (310) is paid for insurance coverage. The premium is calculated (306) using a pure premium method (400) or a loss ratio premium method (402), in a manner that depends on factors such as expected virus scan results (404), expected data recovery time (406), expected geographic spread (408), use of multiple recovery methods (410), and other information regarding the insured entity'"'"'s business and the technical protection services (206) to be used. In some embodiments, the technical protection services are provided under the agreement by a third party technical services provider (300). Systems, signals, and configured media are also described.

Claims

1. A method for providing insurance against data loss, comprising:

establishing a remote data volume including all data of a local data volume at a point in time;

updating the remote data volume over a communications link with data changes to the local data volume;

determining an exposure period, the exposure period based on a time period between a time a data change occurs on the local data volume and a time the data change occurs on the remote data volume, and the exposure period indicating a time over which the data change is at risk;

calculating an insurance premium using the exposure period; and

issuing an insurance policy using the insurance premium, the insurance policy covering claims for loss of data from the local data volume.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a data change rate between the local data volume and the remote data volume, the data change rate indicating a rate at which data changes are transmitted to the remote data volume; and

adjusting the insurance premium in response to the data change rate as the data change rate changes during a coverage period of the insurance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein adjusting the insurance premium further comprises limiting coverage for loss of data changes from the local data volume if the data change rate increases above a predefined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing at least one additional remote data volume, each additional remote data volume including all data of the local data volume at an associated point in time; and

adjusting the insurance premium in response to a number of the additional remote data volumes as the number of additional remote data volumes changes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting at least one of the local data volume, the remote data volume, and the communications link;

wherein calculating the insurance premium further comprises calculating the insurance premium in response to the inspection.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring an availability of the remote data volume during a coverage period of the insurance; and

adjusting the insurance premium in response to the availability of the remote data volume as the availability of the remote data volume changes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

establishing the remote data volume further comprises establishing a plurality of remote data volumes at geographically distinct locations, each of the remote data volumes including all data of the local data volume at an associated point in time; and

updating the remote data volume further comprises updating each remote data volume over an associated communications link with data changes to the local data volume; and

further comprising;

monitoring an availability of each remote data volume during a coverage period of the insurance;

determining a geographic dispersion of the available remote data volumes; and

adjusting the insurance premium in response to the geographic dispersion of the available remote data volumes during the coverage period of the insurance as the geographic dispersion of the available remote data volumes changes.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating a loss estimate, the loss estimate indicating a potential loss during the exposure period; and

calculating a probability of loss, the probability of loss indicating the likelihood that data changes occurring during the exposure period may be lost;

wherein calculating the insurance premium further comprises calculating the insurance premium using the exposure period, the loss estimate, and the probability of loss.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an expected data recovery time, the expected data recovery time indicating an expected time between a restoration of data on the local data volume from the remote data volume;

wherein calculating the insurance premium further comprises calculating the insurance premium using the expected data recovery time.