Temporally controlling access to software assets on user devices

• US 9,009,857 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ivanti, Inc. (Ivanti Software, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Absolute Software Corporation
• Inventors: Bestmann, Martin, Cartier, Jeremy, Miltner, Jens
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, SHIN HON
• Application Number:
  US13/662,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20130111610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

The availability of software assets on electronic devices, such as mobile devices of users, is restricted based on the time as determined by a managing server. An application that runs on the electronic devices communicates with the server to obtain information regarding which software assets are permitted to be accessed, and restricts user access accordingly. The server may use a clock, in combination with administrator-generated access restriction policies, to determine which software assets are to be made available on each electronic device at particular points in time.

Claims

1. A system for limiting availability of software assets on electronic devices comprising:

a server that comprises computer storage that stores software assets and availability times for assets to be accessed on an electronic device, said server comprising a processor coupled to the computer storage, and comprising or having access to a clock that maintains time, said clock being external to the electronic device, the server configured to transmit copies of the assets, and information regarding the availability times, to the electronic device; and

an application that runs on the electronic device remotely from the server, wherein the application instructs the electronic device to at least;

display on the electronic device a list of copies of assets that, based on a current time and on the information regarding the availability times, are currently available via the application, wherein at least one of said assets is present on the electronic device and at least another of said assets is not present on the electronic device;

receive a selection from the list of an asset not present on the electronic device;

retrieve a copy of the selected asset from the server;

permit access to the copies of assets present on the electronic device, including the retrieved copy of the selected asset, when a current time as determined by the clock is within the availability time for the respective asset; and

deny access to the copies of the assets present on the electronic device when the current time as determined by the clock is outside the availability time for the respective asset;

wherein the electronic device comprises a timer, and wherein the application is further configured to recognize an absence of a connection between the device and the server and, as a result of said absence;

determine an alternate current time from the timer;

permit access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is within the corresponding availability time; and

deny access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is outside the corresponding availability time.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein access is denied by deleting the copy of the asset from the electronic device.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein denying access to the copies of the assets present on the electronic device comprises one or more of:

encrypting the copy of an asset;

data rearrangement;

partially deleting the copy of an asset; and

deleting an encryption key used for encrypting the copy of an asset.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein each availability time is defined by one or more of:

a start time;

an end time;

a start and end time;

or

a sequence of durations.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said electronic device is a mobile device.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is configured to display the list with a visual indication of which of the listed assets are present on the electronic device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is configured to display the list with a visual indication that an update is available to a copy of an asset present on the electronic device.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is configured to display on the electronic device a list comprising updated assets that are currently available to be downloaded from the server to the electronic device.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to push a notification of an update of an asset to the device, when the update becomes available during the corresponding availability time.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to push a copy of an updated asset to the device, when the updated asset becomes available during the availability time.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is persistent.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein:

at least one asset is an application purchased in volume, which is to be copied to a plurality of electronic devices; and

the processor is configured to track a number of copies of said purchased application that are received by said plurality of electronic devices.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the availability times for the copies of the assets are defined in a policy that is obtained by the electronic device from the server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein if the policy is changed such that there is no longer an availability time for a copy of an asset, then

the server notifies the electronic device;

and

the application deletes the copy of the asset.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the server is configured to transmit a copy of an asset to the electronic device upon receiving a request from the device.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the server transmits a copy of an asset to the device in response to that asset being stored in the computer storage.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the application is configured to permit access to a copy of an asset only through the application and not through direct access to the copy of the asset.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the application:

permits access to assets by displaying them on the electronic device; and

prevents the electronic device from taking a screen capture while the electronic device is displaying an asset.

19. A method for limiting availability of software assets on electronic devices comprising:

storing, in a server, software assets and availability times for the assets to be accessed on a remote electronic device;

processing, by the server, computer readable instructions stored in a memory in order to transmit the availability times to the device;

displaying, by the device, a list of assets that, based on a current time and on the availability times, are currently available via an application, wherein at least one of said assets is present on the electronic device and at least another of said assets is not present on the electronic device;

receiving a selection from the displayed list of an asset not present on the electronic device;

transmitting a copy of the selected asset from the server to the device;

permitting, by the device, access to copies of the assets present on the electronic device when a current time, as determined by a clock of the server, is within the availability time for the respective asset;

denying, by the device, access to the copies of the assets present on the electronic device when the current time, as determined by the clock in of the server, is outside the availability time for the respective asset; and

detecting an absence of a connection between the device and the server and, as a result of said absence;

determining an alternate current time from a timer of the device;

permitting access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is within the corresponding availability time; and

denying access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is outside the corresponding availability time.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

permitting access to assets by displaying them on the electronic device; and

preventing the electronic device from taking a screen capture while the electronic device is displaying an asset.

21. An electronic device capable of limiting availability of software assets comprising:

a safe embodied in computer readable instructions in a memory, which, when executed by a processor cause the electronic device to;

display on the electronic device a list of assets that, based on a current time and on availability times associated with the assets, are currently available via the safe, wherein at least one of said assets is present on the electronic device and at least another of said assets is not present on the electronic device;

receive a selection from the list of an asset not present on the electronic device;

retrieve a copy of the selected asset from a remote server;

permit access to the copies of the assets present on the electronic device, including the retrieved copy of the selected asset, when a current time, as determined by a clock of the server, is within the availability time for the respective asset; and

deny access to the copies of the assets present on the electronic device when the current time, as determined by the clock in of the server, is outside the availability time for the respective asset;

detect an absence of a connection between the electronic device and the server;

determine, in response to detecting the absence of a connection, an alternate current time from a timer of the electronic device;

permit access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is within the corresponding availability time; and

deny access to the copies of the assets when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is outside the corresponding availability time.

22. The electronic device of claim 21 wherein the safe further causes the electronic device to:

permit access to assets by displaying them on the electronic device; and

prevent a screen capture while the electronic device is displaying an asset.

23. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon an application that restricts access to software assets on a user device based on time, said application comprising executable instructions that direct the user device to at least:

communicate with a remote server to identify, based on a time-based access restriction policy and based on a time maintained or determined by the remote server, a plurality assets currently permitted to be accessed on the user device;

display on the user device a list of the plurality of assets that, based on the time-based access restriction policy, are currently permitted to be accessed, wherein at least one asset on the list is present on the user device and at least another asset on the list is not present on the device;

retrieve from the remote server a copy of an asset not present on the device in response to a selection of said asset from the list;

when a determination is made that the asset is permitted to be accessed on the user device, provide user access to the retrieved copy of the asset;

when a determination is made that the asset is not permitted to be accessed on the user device, prevent user access to the retrieved copy of the asset without deleting the retrieved copy from the user device;

detect an absence of a connection between the user device and the remote server;

determine, in response to detecting the absence of a connection, an alternate current time from a timer of the user device;

permit access to the copy of the asset when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is within a corresponding availability time; and

deny access to the copy of the asset when the alternate current time as determined from the timer is outside the corresponding availability time.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 23, wherein the application includes a user interface that displays the list together with an indication of whether each listed asset is currently present on the user device.