User account creation involving a mobile device

• US 8,938,810 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2012
• Issued: 01/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lookout Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lookout Incorporated
• Inventors: Richardson, David, Mahaffey, Kevin, Grubb, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zecher, Dede
• Assistant Examiner(s): Su, Sarah
• Application Number:
  US13/403,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20120216292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 726/2, 726/3, 726/5, 726/26, 726/27, 726/28, 713/182, 455/411, 455/419
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/12 Protecting executable software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/082 using revocation of authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

Mobile devices may often communicate with network (“cloud”) services that require an account. Because it may be undesirable to require user interaction when creating an account, it may be desirable to create an account associating a mobile device to a network service without requiring a user to explicitly enter authentication information, such as a username and password. In an embodiment, data corresponding to a mobile device is obtained to generate authentication information which is then sent to messaging address of a user. In another embodiment, in response to an event, a mobile device obtains an identifier for a user, sends the identifier to a server, where the server transmits one set of authentication information to a messaging address associated with the user and another set of authentication information to the device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a mobile device of a user to:

receive a new application for remote installation on the mobile device;

after the remote installation of the new application, monitor for one of a plurality of events on the mobile device;

in response to a detection of a first event of the plurality of events, automatically launch the new application, wherein the launch of the new application is a first execution of the new application on the mobile device;

after the launch, execute the new application to automatically obtain, during the first execution, an identifier of the user from the mobile device;

send, during the first execution, the identifier to a first computing device configured to create an account for the user without requiring the user to provide authentication information for the account, wherein an address to be used for a notification to the user will be based on the identifier, and the notification is to include first authentication information associated with the account; and

receive, at the mobile device, second authentication information associated with the account.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the receiving the second authentication information comprises receiving the notification.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to send the second authentication information to a second computing device.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to send the second authentication information via a message sent to a messaging address of the user.

5. The storage medium of claim 4, wherein the messaging address is the address to be used for the notification.

6. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first event is selected from the group consisting of:

receipt of a message by the mobile device, providing of an input by the user on the mobile device, firing of an intent on the mobile device, starting up of the mobile device, activation of a button or user interface element on the mobile device, a change in location of the mobile device, and user activation of a display screen of the mobile device.

7. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first authentication information and the second authentication information are the same.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first authentication information comprises a user name and a password, and the second authentication information comprises a random token for authentication of the mobile device.

9. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to generate third authentication information and send the third authentication information to the first computing device.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the notification is to further include the third authentication information.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the notification is to further include fourth authentication information different from the third authentication information.

12. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first authentication information and the third authentication information are the same.

13. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the third authentication information is a random password, the account is created based on the identifier and the random password, the address to be used for the notification is an email address, the notification is an email to be sent by the first computing device to the email address, and the email is to include the identifier and the random password.

14. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to randomly generate a first password for communications with the first computing device, and wherein the first authentication information is to further include a second password randomly-generated by the first computing device for the user to login to the first computing device.

15. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the identifier is an address.

16. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the identifier is an email address.

17. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to store the second authentication information, and use the second authentication information to log into a web service associated with the account.

18. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is configured to provide a web service associated with the account.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the web service is a remote access service permitting the user to remotely perform an action on the mobile device.

20. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the web service is a photo sharing service comprising storing of photos provided by the user, and wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to provide access to the photos by at least one person authorized by the user.

21. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the web service is a service selected from the group consisting of:

a policy management service, and a diagnostics data gathering service.

22. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to, in response to an instruction sent from a second computing device associated with the account, perform a function of the mobile device to obtain first information.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are the same.

24. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the identifier is a first address, and the instructions further cause the mobile device to send the first information to a third computing device or to the first address.

25. The storage medium of claim 24, wherein the first computing device and the third computing device are the same.

26. The storage medium of claim 24, wherein the second computing device and the third computing device are the same.

27. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the instructions further cause the mobile device to, in response to an instruction sent from the second computing device, perform at least one function selected from the group consisting of:

playing a sound, locking user interface access to the mobile device, blocking wireless access to the mobile device, wiping data from a memory of the mobile device, backing-up data from the mobile device to another computing device, and locating the mobile device.

28. A system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to;

receive data from a mobile device of a user, wherein the mobile device is configured to monitor, after remote installation of a new application on the mobile device, for one of a plurality of events on the mobile device, to automatically launch, in response to a detection of a first event of the plurality of events, the new application, wherein the launch of the new application is a first execution of the new application on the mobile device, and to execute the new application to automatically provide the data during the first execution;

in response to receiving the data, create an account for the user and authentication information for the account, without requiring the user to provide authentication information for the account; and

send the authentication information to a messaging address of the user.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the data comprises the messaging address and an identification number of the mobile device.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the messaging address is an email address.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the messaging address is associated with the mobile device and a computing device of the user.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the sending the authentication information comprises sending an email via a messaging server to the computing device of the user.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processor to, subsequent to creating the account, log in the user to the account.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processor to, subsequent to creating the account, provide the user with remote access to the mobile device.

35. The system of claim 28, wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processor to provide a web service associated with the account.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the web service is a remote access service permitting the user to remotely perform an action on the mobile device.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the web service is a photo sharing service comprising storing of photos provided by the user, and wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the at least one processor to provide access to the photos by at least one person authorized by the user.

38. A method, comprising:

receiving data from a mobile device of a user, wherein the mobile device is configured to monitor, after remote installation of a new application on the mobile device, for one of a plurality of events on the mobile device, to automatically launch, in response to a detection of a first event of the plurality of events, the new application, wherein the launch of the new application is a first execution of the new application on the mobile device, and to execute the new application during the first execution to automatically provide the data;

in response to receiving the data, creating an account for the user and authentication information for the account, without requiring the user to provide authentication information for the account; and

sending the authentication information to a messaging address of the user.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the sending comprises sending by a computing device other than the mobile device.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising providing a service associated with the account, wherein the service comprises causing, over a network, an action on the mobile device in response to an instruction received from the user.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising causing the mobile device to execute the new application in order to perform the action.

42. A method, comprising:

receiving a new application for remote installation on a mobile device of a user;

after the remote installation of the new application, monitoring for one of a plurality of events on the mobile device;

in response to a detection of a first event of the plurality of events, automatically launching the new application, wherein the launch of the new application is a first execution of the new application on the mobile device;

after the launch, executing the new application to automatically obtain, during the first execution, an identifier of the user from the mobile device;

sending, via the mobile device, during the first execution, data to a first computing device, the data to be used for creating an account for the user without requiring the user to provide authentication information for the account, and for creating authentication information for the account; and

sending the authentication information via a message sent to a messaging address of the user.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising performing, based on an instruction received from the user via a computing device other than the mobile device, an action on the mobile device, wherein the action corresponds to a service associated with the account.