Mechanisms to secure data on hard reset of device

• US 9,449,157 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2014
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Chaturvedi, Pradeep Kumar, Sahoo, Prasanta Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl, Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): GYORFI, THOMAS A
• Application Number:
  US14/164,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20140143862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/17, 726/19, 713/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/575 Secure boot
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques

Abstract

Mechanisms to secure data on a hard reset of a device are provided. A hard reset request is detected on a handheld device. Before the hard reset is permitted to process an additional security compliance check is made. Assuming, the additional security compliance check is successful and before the hard reset is processed, the data of the handheld device is backed up to a configurable location.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, by a processor, a reformat disk command on a device recognized as a hard reset on a device;

preventing, by the processor, the hard reset from executing by invoking a customized interrupt service routine registered on the device for handling hard reset interrupts, the customized interrupt service routine when invoked disables interrupts on the device;

enabling, by the processor, the interrupts for execution of the hard reset to proceed on the device once a credential is validated, the credential is an authentication credential, and wherein enabling further includes authenticating the credential as an user-supplied credential from a user that is operating the device and identifying the user-supplied credential as being different from an access credential supplied by the user to access the device for operation; and

ignoring the hard reset when the user fails to provide the user-supplied credential within a predefined time duration and when ignoring the hard reset re-enabling the interrupts on the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling further includes backing up data on the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein backing up further includes storing the backed up data in a location that is external to the device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein backing up further includes storing the backed up data to a portable memory device in communication with the device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling further includes enforcing a security policy before enabling the execution of the hard reset.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein enforcing further includes acquiring the security policy from a location that is external to the device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling further includes receiving the credential from a user of the device.