Internet security updates via mobile phone videos

• US 7,953,846 B1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jana, Rittwik, Amoroso, Edward, Rubin, Daniel, Liu, Huajie, Laing, Barbara, Gibbon, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANSARI, NAJEEBUDDIN
• Application Number:
  US11/321,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,978 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/204, 709/231, 709/206, 379/37, 713/201, 455/466, 455/412.1, 345/802
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms

Abstract

Information relevant to internet security is received at a data center server. Such information, for example, a network intrusion alert or details on a recent outbreak of an network virus, may be examined to determine the nature and scope of the security-related information. A security alert is promptly generated in response to the information, using previously stored multimedia content divided into categories of security alerts and/or multimedia content generated at the data center shortly after receiving the security information. The security alert is then disseminated to a plurality of mobile device users. The alerts may be disseminated only to the users associated with a certain security event category, or may be sent to different groups of users depending on other relevant criteria.

Claims

1. A method of providing security alerts to at least one mobile device comprising:

receiving at a security message delivery router security data indicative of a category of security alert, the security data received through an alert posting interface, the security message delivery router part of an alert dissemination engine, the alert posting interface for receiving and validating the security data, wherein when the security data is validated an alert key is generated and returned to a provider of the security data, the alert key being a concatenation of a first part provided by the alert posting interface and a second part provided by the alert dissemination engine, the alert key for future operations related to the security data, the future operations including one or more of canceling an alert associated with the security data and generating an alert report;

accessing a database comprising a plurality of prerecorded multimedia messages, wherein each prerecorded multimedia message corresponds to a security alert category;

matching the received security data to at least one prerecorded multimedia message in the database;

customizing the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message by supplementing said at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message with additional content describing the received security data, the additional content including a security level and a scope of affected systems;

associating the received security data with at least one mobile device;

determining an address for each of the at least one associated mobile devices; and

delivering the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message to each determined address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received security data comprises a video stream, and the customizing the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message comprises:

identifying a relevant portion of the video stream of the received security data; and

integrating the relevant portion of the video stream of the received security data into the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein multimedia analysis techniques are used to automatically identify the relevant portion of the video stream of the received security data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received security data comprises an audio stream, and the customizing the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message comprises:

performing a speech recognition analysis on the audio stream of the received security data;

indexing the audio stream based on the speech recognition analysis;

identifying a relevant portion of the audio stream; and

integrating the relevant portion of the audio stream of the received security data into the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the customizing the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message comprises:

generating additional multimedia content by recording a newsreader describing the received security data; and

integrating the generated additional multimedia content into the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an acknowledgement from a first of the at least one mobile devices indicating successful delivery of the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering links to each determined address, wherein the links direct a mobile device user to additional information related to the at least one matching prerecorded multimedia message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating the received security data with at least one mobile device comprises retrieving user security category alert preferences from a user database.

9. A method of providing a security alert to a mobile telecommunications device user comprising:

receiving at a server a security alert data message indicative of a category of security alert, the security alert data message received through an alert posting interface, the alert posting interface for receiving and validating the security alert data message, wherein when the security alert data message is validated an alert key is generated and returned to a provider of the security alert data message, the alert key being a concatenation of a first part provided by the alert posting interface and a second part provided by the server, the alert key for future operations related to the security alert data message, the future operations including one or more of canceling an alert associated with the security alert data message and generating an alert report;

associating the security alert data message with a mobile telecommunications device user impacted by the security alert data message;

generating a multimedia message based on the security alert data message and user-specific information, wherein generating the multimedia message comprises identifying a prerecorded streaming video message corresponding to the category of the security alert data message, and customizing the prerecorded streaming video message to include additional content describing the security alert data message, the additional content including a security level and a scope of affected systems; and

transmitting the multimedia message to the mobile telecommunications device user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the multimedia message comprises a podcast.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the transmitting the multimedia message to the mobile telecommunications device user is done asynchronously.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the transmitting the multimedia message to the mobile telecommunications device user is done in accordance with the MMS network protocol.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving at the server an acknowledgement indicating that the multimedia message has been received by the mobile telecommunications device user.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the generating the multimedia message based on the security alert data message and user-specific information comprises:

generating the additional multimedia content by recording a newsreader describing the received security alert data message; and

integrating the additional multimedia content into the prerecorded streaming video message corresponding to the category of the security alert data message.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method for providing security alerts to mobile devices comprising:

receiving at a server a data report indicative of a category of security alert, the data report received through an alert posting interface, the alert posting interface for receiving and validating the data report, wherein when the data report is validated an alert key is generated and returned to a provider of the data report, the alert key being a concatenation of a first part provided by the alert posting interface and a second part provided by the server, the alert key for future operations related to the data report, the future operations including one or more of canceling an alert associated with the security alert data message and generating an alert report;

maintaining a database comprising of a plurality of multimedia messages, wherein each multimedia message corresponds to a security alert category;

retrieving from said database a multimedia message based on a security alert category associated with the received data report;

customizing the retrieved multimedia message by supplementing said multimedia message with additional content describing the data report, the additional content including a security level and a scope of affected systems;

identifying a plurality of mobile devices addresses associated with the received data report; and

transmitting the multimedia message to each identified mobile device address.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the multimedia message to each identified mobile device address is done asynchronously.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the multimedia message to each identified mobile device address is done in accordance with the MMS network protocol.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises receiving at the server an acknowledgement from a mobile device indicating that the multimedia message has been received by the mobile device.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the received data report comprises a video stream, and the customizing the retrieved multimedia message comprises:

identifying a relevant portion of the video stream of the received data report; and

integrating the relevant portion of the video stream of the received data report into the retrieved multimedia message.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises using multimedia analysis techniques to automatically identify the relevant portion of the received data report.