Centralized data transformation

• US 8,001,600 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 08/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Durham, Roderick Harold
• Primary Examiner(s): Zee, Edward
• Application Number:
  US12/640,854
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726 22- 25
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A method of facilitating transformation of survey data from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format may include: receiving instances of foreign data from survey-tools, the foreign data being in foreign format used by the survey-tools, respectively; and appending, to the instances of foreign data, service-keys to identify the service tools which gathered the foreign data, respectively, to produce a data block that includes key-and-foreign-data pairs. Another such method may include: receiving such a data block; culling from the block key-and-foreign-data pairs; and operating upon the pairs to transform respective chunks of foreign data from being in respective foreign formats into being in corresponding desired formats according to corresponding service-keys, respectively.

Claims

1. A method, implemented on a host-asset, of facilitating transformation of survey data from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool on the host-asset to being in a desired format, the method comprising:

receiving, on a host-asset, at least first foreign data from at least a first survey-tool, the foreign data being in an at least a first foreign format used by the first survey-tool, respectively;

appending, to the at-least-first foreign data through execution of instructions on a processor of a computer performing the method, at least a first service-key to identify the at-least-first service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, to produce a data block that includes at least a first key-and-foreign-data pair, wherein the foreign data includes values of plural parameters which characterize an operational state of the host-asset;

receiving, on the host asset, at least second foreign data from at least a second survey-tool, the at-least-second foreign data being in at least a second foreign format used by the second survey-tool, respectively, wherein the first and second foreign formats are different;

appending at least a second service-key to the at-least-second foreign data to identify the at-least-second service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, such that the data block includes the first key-and-foreign-data pair and at least a second key-and-foreign-data pair; and

wherein the receiving and appending are performed locally at the host-asset, the host-asset being a client-type entity, the first survey-tool being a sensor on the host-asset;

sending the data block to a remote server-type entity for transformation to the desired format according to the at least a first service-key, respectively;

receiving, by the sensor on the host asset, a deployment package in response to the sending of the data block to the remote server-type entity, the deployment package including at least one automatically deployable remediation selected based on data included in the data block; and

deploying, by the sensor on the host asset, the at least one automatically deployable remediation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calling at least a first and second survey-tool to request the at-least-first-and-second foreign data.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

executing the first and second survey-tool on the host-asset to collect values of the plural parameters which characterize the operational state of the host-asset, which are included in the at-least-first-and-second foreign data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calling at least a first survey-tool to request the at-least-first foreign data; and

executing the first survey-tool on the host-asset to collect values of the plural parameters which characterize an operational state of the host-asset, which are included in the at-least-first foreign data.

5. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions being executed by a processor of a computer, the instructions including a machine-implemented method for transforming survey data from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format, the machine-readable instructions for implementing the steps of:

receiving, on a host-asset, at least first foreign data from at least a first survey-tool, the foreign data being in an at least a first foreign format used by the first survey-tool, respectively;

appending, to the at-least-first foreign data, at least a first service-key to identify the at-least-first service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, to produce a data block that includes at least a first key-and-foreign-data pair,

wherein the foreign data includes values of plural parameters which characterize an operational state of the host-asset;

receiving, on the host asset, at least second foreign data from at least a second survey-tool, the at-least-second foreign data being in at least a second foreign format used by the second survey-tool, respectively, wherein the first and second foreign formats are different;

appending at least a second service-key to the at-least-second foreign data to identify the at-least-second service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, such that the data block includes the first key-and-foreign-data pair and at least a second key-and-foreign-data pair; and

wherein;

the receiving and appending are performed locally at the host-asset, the host-asset being a client-type entity, the first survey-tool being a sensor on the host-asset; and

the machine-readable instructions further comprises sending the data block to a remote server-type entity for transformation to the desired format according to the at least a first service-key, respectively; and

receiving, by the sensor on the host asset, a deployment package in response to the sending of the data block to the remote server-type entity, the deployment package including at least one automatically deployable remediation selected based on data included in the data block; and

deploying, by the sensor on the host asset, the at least one automatically deployable remediation.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5, further comprising instructions for:

calling at least a first and second survey-tool to request the at-least-first-and-second foreign data; and

executing the first and second survey-tool on the host-asset to collect values of the plural parameters which characterize the operational state of the host-asset, which are included in the at-least-first-and-second foreign data.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 5, further comprising instructions for:

calling at least a first survey-tool to request the at-least-first foreign data.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 7, further comprising instructions for:

executing the first and second survey-tool on the host-asset to collect values of the plural parameters which characterize the operational state of the host-asset, which are included in the at-least-first-and-second foreign data.

9. A computer server for implementing a method of facilitating transformation of survey data about a host-asset from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format, the apparatus comprising:

a network interface coupled to a bus;

a storage medium coupled to the bus;

a processing unit coupled to the bus and configured to execute instructions stored on the storage medium, the instructions when executed cause the server to facilitate;

receiving, on a host-asset, at least first foreign data from at least a first survey-tool, the foreign data being in an at least a first foreign format used by the first survey-tool, respectively;

appending, to the at-least-first foreign data, at least a first service-key to identify the at-least-first service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, to produce a data block that includes at least a first key-and-foreign-data pair,

wherein the foreign data includes values of plural parameters which characterize an operational state of the host-asset;

receiving, on the host asset, at least second foreign data from at least a second survey-tool, the at-least-second foreign data being in at least a second foreign format used by the second survey-tool, respectively, wherein the first and second foreign formats are different; and

appending at least a second service-key to the at-least-second foreign data to identify the at-least-second service tool as the gatherer thereof, respectively, such that the data block includes the first key-and-foreign-data pair and at least a second key-and-foreign-data pair;

wherein;

the receiving and appending are performed locally at the host-asset, the host-asset being a client-type entity, the first survey-tool being a sensor on the host-asset; and

the instructions further comprises instructions that when executed cause the server to facilitate sending the data block to a remote server-type entity for transformation to the desired format according to the at least a first service-key, respectively;

receiving, by the sensor on the host asset, a deployment package in response to the sending of the data block to the remote server-type entity, the deployment package including at least one automatically deployable remediation selected based on data included in the data block; and

deploying, by the sensor on the host asset, the at least one automatically deployable remediation.

10. The computer server of claim 9, wherein:

the receiving and appending are performed locally at the host-asset, the host-asset being a client-type entity, the first survey-tool being a sensor on the host-asset; and

the processing unit is further configured to facilitate sending the data block to a remote server-type entity over the network interface for transformation to the desired format according to the at least a first service-key, respectively.