Monitoring and reporting policy compliance of home networks

• US 8,522,304 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2006
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
• Original Assignee: iBAHN General Holdings Corporation (Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd.)
• Inventors: Molen, Brett Thomas, Norr, George B., Welch, John Thomas, Ehlers, Richard L., Midani, Wael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): REVAK, CHRISTOPHER A
• Application Number:
  US11/530,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20080066145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are described for monitoring and configuring home networks for a variety of purposes such as, for example, facilitating secure communications between the home network and a remote network, and facilitating provision of a service by a service provider such as, for example, a cellular carrier.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer program instructions stored therein which are operable to cause at least one computing device to monitor and configure a home network to facilitate secure communications between the home network and a remote network, the computer program instructions comprising:

first instructions for identifying a set of devices presently communicating on the home network and for monitoring at least one security parameter associated with the home network, the at least one security parameter defined according to a policy corresponding to an enterprise associated with the remote network;

second instructions for locally detecting, by a background application running on one of the set of devices, that the at least one security parameter fails to conform to the policy, wherein the home network corresponds to a residence of a person employed by the enterprise, and wherein the home network has a corresponding network provider not affiliated with the enterprise; and

third instructions for automatically configuring at least one of the devices to facilitate compliance with the policy in response to detecting that the at least one security parameter does not conform to the policy.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the at least one device comprises one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computing device, a cellular phone, an email client, a gateway, a wired router, a wireless router, a cable modem, a DSL modem, a wireless access point, an Ethernet networking device, an optical networking device, a video encoding device, a media server, or a VoIP device.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first, second, and third instructions are deployed on the home network.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein the first, second, and third instructions are embodied in any of software, firmware, or hardware.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein first instructions are operable to determine whether a process specified by the policy is operating on the home network.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein the specified process relates to one or more of encryption, authentication, firewall protection, virus protection, spyware protection, access point configuration, or data access.

7. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein the third instructions are operable to effect operation of the specified process on the home network.

8. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first instructions are operable to detect at least one configuration parameter or operational parameter of the at least one device.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the third instructions are operable to modify the at least one configuration parameter or operational parameter of the at least one device.

10. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the first instructions are operable to detect access to the home network by an unauthorized device.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the third instructions are operable to configure the at least one device to inhibit transmission from the unauthorized device to the remote network or other devices on the home network.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising fourth instructions for generating a representation of the home network for presentation in a network operations center (NOC) interface associated with the remote network substantially in real time.

13. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the third instructions automatically configure the at least one of the devices to facilitate compliance with the policy using the background application.

14. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and configuring a home network to facilitate secure communications between the home network and a remote network, comprising:

monitoring at least one security parameter associated with the home network including identifying devices presently communicating on the home network, the at least one security parameter defined according to a policy corresponding to an enterprise associated with the remote network;

locally detecting, by a background application running on one of the set of devices, that the at least one security parameter fails to conform to the policy, wherein the home network corresponds to a residence of a person employed by the enterprise, and wherein the home network has a corresponding network provider not affiliated with the enterprise; and

in response to detecting that the at least one security parameter does not conform to the policy, automatically configuring at least one of the devices to facilitate compliance with the policy.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 wherein the at least one device comprises one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computing device, a cellular phone, an email client, a gateway, a wired router, a wireless router, a cable modem, a DSL modem, a wireless access point, an Ethernet networking device, an optical networking device, a video encoding device, a media server, or a VoIP device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising determining whether a process specified by the policy is operating on the home network.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 wherein the specified process relates to one or more of encryption, authentication, firewall protection, virus protection, spyware protection, access point configuration, or data access.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 further comprising effecting operation of the specified process on the home network.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising detecting at least one configuration parameter or operational parameter of the at least one device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19 further comprising modifying the at least one configuration parameter or operational parameter of the at least one device.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising detecting access to the home network by an unauthorized device.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21 further comprising configuring the at least one device to inhibit transmission from the unauthorized device to the remote network or other devices on the home network.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising generating a representation of the home network for presentation in a network operations center (NOC) interface associated with the remote network substantially in real time.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 wherein the at least one of the devices is automatically configured to facilitate compliance with the policy using the background application.