Systems and methods for delegation and notification of administration of internet access

• US 8,484,703 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2009
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Kenny, Shane, Kenny, Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughan, Michael R
• Application Number:
  US12/464,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20090222894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/33 using certificates

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable media for delegating administrative rights to a third party in an Internet access control application comprising receiving a designation of a third party wherein the designation identifies the third party as a recipient of administrative rights in an access control application, and receiving a selection of administrative rights to be associated with the third party. Further, an invitation can be sent, or caused to be sent, to the third party. Acceptance of said invitation can be received. Also, administrative rights can be granted to the third party. The systems, methods, and computer readable media can be operable within a client/server architecture. Also disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable media for notification of an access policy violation. Also disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable media for administration of an access control application by a third party and access policy violation notification.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of delegating administrative rights to a third party comprising:

receiving, from a first computing device, a request, by a first end user associated with a first account of a network access control application, to delegate administrative rights for the first account of the network access control application to a third party end user, wherein the request identifies the third party end user, and the access control application monitors violations of a network access policy by a particular set of end users of at least one network-enabled application, the particular set of end users associated with the first account, wherein the third party end user is outside the particular set of end users associated with the first account;

receiving a selection, specified by the first end-user, of particular administrative rights in the network access control application to delegate to the third party end user;

causing an invitation to be sent to the third party end user for acceptance by the third party end user of the delegation of the particular administrative rights for the first account; and

providing the third party end user the particular administrative rights for the first account of the access control application.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein sending of the invitation is triggered by the request.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving acceptance of the invitation from the third party end user; and

wherein the particular administrative rights for the first account of the access control application are provided to the third party end user in response to the received acceptance.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the third party end user administrative rights in the access control application.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a request, from a remote second computing device, for the third party end user to perform an administrative command relating to the first account of the network access control application; and

modifying settings of the network access control application associated with the first account based at least in part on the administration command.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the request is received from a remote second computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation includes instructions for creating an administrator account for the third party end user for use in performing administrative commands relating to settings for the first account of the network access control application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the delegated particular administrative rights, prior to delegation to the third party end user, are associated with the first end user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein delegating the particular administrative rights removes at least some of the delegated particular administrative rights from the first end user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a second data record identifies that administrative rights for a second account of the network access control application have been delegated to another third party end user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first end user associated with the first account is an end user of the at least one network-enabled application.

12. A system of delegating administrative rights to a third party comprising:

a server device serving at least a portion of an access control application in communication with at least one network-enabled application residing, at least in part, on a client computing device, the access control application including;

a network access control module configured to monitor violations of a network access policy associated with a first account by a particular set of end users of the at least one network-enabled application, the particular set of end users associated with the first account; and

an administrative rights manager configured to;

receive, from a remote computing device, a request, by a first end user in the particular set of end users associated with the first account of the access control application, to delegate administrative rights for the first account of the access control application to a third party end user outside the particular set of end users associated with the first account;

receive a selection, specified by the first end-user, of particular administrative rights in the access control application, for the first account, to delegate to the third party end user;

cause an invitation to be sent to the third party end user for acceptance by the third party end user of the delegation of the particular administrative rights for the first account; and

provide the third party end user the particular administrative rights for the first account of the access control application.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the administrative rights manager is further configured to:

receive an administrative command from the third party end user, and

modify settings of the network access control application associated with the first account based at least in part on the administration command.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the settings associated with the first account include a set of restricted categories of content.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the settings associated with the first account include a set of rules defining notification of attempts to access restricted content using the at least one network-enabled application.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the set of rules define a threshold frequency of attempts to access restricted content, and meeting the defined threshold triggers a notification.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions embodied thereon for delegating administrative rights to a third party comprising:

receiving, from a first computing device, a request, by a first end user associated with a first account of a network access control application, to delegate administrative rights for the first account of the network access control application to a third party end user, wherein the request identifies the third party end user, and the access control application monitors violations of a network access policy by a particular set of end users of at least one network-enabled application, the particular set of end users associated with the first account, wherein the third party end user is outside the particular set of end users associated with the first account;

receiving a selection, specified by the first end-user, of particular administrative rights in the network access control application to delegate to the third party end user;

causing an invitation to be sent to the third party end user for acceptance by the third party end user of the delegation of the particular administrative rights for the first account; and

providing the third party end user the particular administrative rights for the first account of the access control application.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the network access policy is an internet content access policy and the at least one network-enabled application is an internet-enabled application.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions embodied thereon for administering a network access control application comprising:

identifying a request, by a first end user associated with a first account of a network access control application, to delegate administrative rights for the first account of the network access control application to a third party end user;

causing an invitation to be sent to the third party end user for acceptance by the third party end user of the delegation of the particular administrative rights for the first account;

providing the third party end user the particular administrative rights for the first account of the access control application upon acceptance of the delegation of the particular administrative rights for the first account;

authenticating, the third party end user to perform particular administrative commands to change settings of the first account of the network access control application;

receiving a particular administrative command from the authenticated third party administrator end user; and

modifying settings of the network access control application associated with the first account based at least in part on the administration command;

wherein the network access control application monitors violations of a network access policy associated with the first account by a particular set of end users of at least one network-enabled application, the particular set of end users associated with the first account, and the third party end user is outside the particular set of end users associated with the first account.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the particular end user associated with the first account is an end user of the at least one network-enabled application and included in the particular set of end users.