Controlling and remotely monitoring accessed network data

• US 7,406,715 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2003
• Issued: 07/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Clapper, Edward O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand; Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wyszynski; Aubrey H
• Application Number:
  US10/393,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20040186989A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,959 Days
• Field of Search: 726/25
• US Class Current: 726/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6281 at program execution time, where the protection is within the operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/85 interconnection devices, e.g. bus-connected or in-line devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment

Abstract

An environment for remote monitoring of a device, such as a child'"'"'s computer, from a television or other monitor device. The monitored device has a security layer, which may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of the two, where the security layer inspects some or all accessed network data or network access activities, including real-time content such as chat rooms and the like. While the monitored device is used to access network data, alerts are displayed on the remote monitoring device to allow an adult or other responsible entity to keep track of material. Thus, for example, an adult may watch television, confident that an alert will be displayed in a corner of the television screen if necessary to alert the adult to any problems. For serious alerts, the security layer may automatically block or shutdown offending network application programs.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring network data accessed by a device, comprising:

a network interface having an identifier to communicatively couple the system with a network;

a network application program coupled to the network interface to access network data of one or more content providers of the network, the network data comprising one or more contents;

a forwarding module coupled to the network interface for forwarding some or all accessed network data to a content recognizer; and

a security layer coupled to the forwarding module, including the content recognizer and an alert generator, the content recognizer configured to semantically analyze the network data to determine whether any of the one or more contents within the forwarded network data indicates a possible solicitation of personally-identifiable information, and, the alert generator operable to issue an alert to a monitoring device external to the system if possible solicitation of personally-identifiable information is identified by the content recognizer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a monitor for displaying the alert;

a receiver attached to the monitor for receiving the alert and presenting the alert in a format suitable for display by the monitor; and

a transmitter attached to the device and communicatively coupling the alert generator and the receiver.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the receiver and transmitter utilize a wireless communication technology.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the monitor comprises a television.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the device is a child'"'"'s computer.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a monitor for displaying the alert; and

an override controller to allow issuing a response to an alert displayed on the monitor.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the alert displayed on the monitor indicates access to the network has been denied, and wherein the response may instruct the security layer to allow continued access to the network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the security layer further comprises a process handler for controlling application programs operating on the device.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, by a network application program of a computing system, network data of a network accessible by the host, the network data comprising one or more contents;

semantically analyzing, by a content recognizer of the computing system, the one or more contents to determine whether any of the one or more contents indicates a possible attempt to solicit personally-identifiable information; and

issuing, by an alert generator of the computing system, an alert to a monitoring device external to the host if the one or more contents is determined to indicate a personally-identifiable information solicitation.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising blocking, by the network application program of the computing system, access to the network data if the network data is determined to indicate a personal solicitation.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the semantic analysis comprises analyzing one or more of a keyword or a key phrase.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the semantic analysis comprises evaluating the received network data for requests for an age or an address of a user.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the predetermined criteria comprises a plurality of categories of unacceptable content and the issued alert is one of a plurality of alert types correlating to the plurality of categories.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the content recognizer is part of a security layer of the computing system and the method further comprises preventing receipt of the network data until the security layer including the content recognizer is initialized.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface to receive network data of a network accessible by the apparatus, the network data comprising one or more contents;

processor coupled to the network interface;

a content analyzer to be operated by the processor to semantically analyze the one or more contents to determine whether any of the one or more contents indicates an attempt to solicit personally-identifiable information; and

an alert generator to be operated by the processor to issue an alert, via the network interface, to a monitoring device external to the apparatus if the one or more contents is determined to indicate a personally-identifiable information solicitation.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising a content blocker to be operated by the processor to block access to network data determined to be a personally-identifiable information solicitation.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the syntactic analysis includes analyzing whether the network contains requests for an age or an address of a user.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the predetermined criteria comprises a plurality of categories of unacceptable content and the issued alert is one of a plurality of alert types correlating to the plurality of categories.

19. An article of manufacture comprising:

a plurality of machine accessible instructions stored on a storage medium and designed to program an apparatus to;

receive network data of a network accessible by the apparatus, the network data comprising one or more contents;

semantically analyze the one or more contents to determine whether any of the one or more contents indicates a possible attempt to solicit personally-identifiable information; and

issue an alert, via the network interface, to a monitoring device external to the apparatus if the one or more contents is determined to be a possible personally-identifiable information solicitation.

20. The article of claim 19 wherein the plurality of machine accessible instructions are further designed to program the apparatus to block the network data if the network data is determined to be a personally-identifiable information solicitation.

21. The article of claim 19 wherein the plurality of programming instructions are adapted to determine whether the network contents contains requests for a user'"'"'s age or address.