Administering a remote session between a target computing device and a remote computing device

• US 9,609,069 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2014
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Global Technologies International Ltd. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte., Ltd. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Alexandrescu, Nicolae-Marian, Dake, Gregory W., Molander, Mark E., Nolterieke, Michael H., Scrutton, Paul K., Whetzel, John K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Khanh
• Application Number:
  US14/570,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20160173614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 834 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/220, 709/224, 709/227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• 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 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Administering a remote session between a target computing device and a remote computing device, including: identifying, by a remote session administration module, a confidentiality level of content displayed by a target computing device, the target computing device engaged in a remote session with remote computing device, the remote session carried out by software executed by the target computing device, software executed by the remote computing device, and an active data communication link between the target computing device and the remote computing device; and controlling, by the remote session administration module, the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device.

Claims

1. A method of administering a remote session between a target computing device and a remote computing device, the method comprising:

identifying, by a remote session administration module, a confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device, the target computing device engaged in a remote session with the remote computing device, the remote session carried out by software executed by the target computing device, software executed by the remote computing device, and an active data communication link between the target computing device and the remote computing device; and

controlling, by the remote session administration module, the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, an inactivity timeout period, the inactivity timeout period specifying a maximum amount of time that the remote session can be unutilized by a user of the remote computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

detecting, by the remote session administration module, that an additional remote computing device has initiated a request to establish a new remote session with the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, whether to enable the new remote session.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a user at the remote computing device has utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period; and

responsive to determining that the user at the remote computing device has not utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period, terminating, by the remote session administration module, the remote session.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a password was required to access the content displayed by the target computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying an application that is required to display the content displayed by the target computing device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying, by the remote session administration module, predetermined confidentiality identifiers contained within the content displayed by the target computing device.

7. An apparatus for administering a remote session between a target computing device and a remote computing device, the apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

identifying, by a remote session administration module, a confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device, the target computing device engaged in a remote session with the remote computing device, the remote session carried out by software executed by the target computing device, software executed by the remote computing device, and an active data communication link between the target computing device and the remote computing device; and

controlling, by the remote session administration module, the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, an inactivity timeout period, the inactivity timeout period specifying a maximum amount of time that the remote session can be inactive.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

detecting, by the remote session administration module, that an additional remote computing device has initiated a request to establish a new remote session with the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, whether to enable the new remote session.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a user at the remote computing device has utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period; and

responsive to determining that the user at the remote computing device has not utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period, terminating, by the remote session administration module, the remote session.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a password was required to access the content displayed by the target computing device.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying an application that is required to display the content displayed by the target computing device.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying, by the remote session administration module, predetermined confidentiality identifiers contained within the content displayed by the target computing device.

13. A computer program product for administering a remote session between a target computing device and a remote computing device, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:

identifying, by a remote session administration module, a confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device, the target computing device engaged in a remote session with the remote computing device, the remote session carried out by software executed by the target computing device, software executed by the remote computing device, and an active data communication link between the target computing device and the remote computing device; and

controlling, by the remote session administration module, the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, an inactivity timeout period, the inactivity timeout period specifying a maximum amount of time that the remote session can be inactive.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

detecting, by the remote session administration module, that an additional remote computing device has initiated a request to establish a new remote session with the target computing device; and

determining, by the remote session administration module in dependence upon the confidentiality level of the content displayed by the target computing device, whether to enable the new remote session.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein controlling the remote session in dependence upon the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises:

determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a user at the remote computing device has utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period; and

responsive to determining that the user at the remote computing device has not utilized the remote session during the inactivity timeout period, terminating, by the remote session administration module, the remote session.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises determining, by the remote session administration module, whether a password was required to access the content displayed by the target computing device.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying an application that is required to display the content displayed by the target computing device.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein identifying the confidentiality level of content displayed by the target computing device further comprises identifying, by the remote session administration module, predetermined confidentiality identifiers contained within the content displayed by the target computing device.