Systems and methods for contextual and cross application threat detection and prediction in cloud applications

• US 10,063,654 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2015
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Kirti, Ganesh, Biswas, Kamalendu, Gurumurthy, Prakash, Alomari, Raja S., Perera, Sumedha Nalin
• Primary Examiner(s): Thiaw, Catherine
• Assistant Examiner(s): Johnson, Carlton
• Application Number:
  US14/749,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319185A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/67 Risk-dependent, e.g. selecting a security level depending on risk profiles

Abstract

Systems and methods for contextual and cross application threat detection in cloud applications in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for detecting threat activity in a cloud application using past activity data from cloud applications includes receiving activity data concerning actions performed by a user account associated with a user within a monitored cloud application, receiving external contextual data about the user that does not concern actions performed using the user account within the monitored cloud application, where the external contextual data is retrieved from outside of the monitored cloud application, deriving a baseline user profile using the activity data and external contextual data and associating the baseline user profile with the user account, and determining the likelihood of anomalous activity using the baseline user profile.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by a computer system of a network security system, for detecting threat activity related to a cloud application, comprising:

receiving, from a service provider system, activity data corresponding to one or more actions performed during use of the cloud application by a user account with the cloud application, wherein the service provider system hosts the cloud application, wherein the user account is one of a set of user accounts associated with a tenant account provided by the service provider system for a tenant, wherein the set of user accounts enables one or more users associated with the tenant to access the cloud application;

receiving, from a system that is different from the service provider system, contextual data associated with a user associated with the user account;

generating a profile for the user using the activity data and the contextual data, wherein the profile is associated with the user account;

determining a measure of anomalous activity using the profile;

determining one or more security controls of the service provider system, wherein the one or more security controls are used by the service provider system to configure access to the cloud application;

determining one or more instructions to send to the service provider system, wherein the one or more instructions are based on the measure of anomalous activity; and

sending the one or more instructions to the service provider system, wherein the one or more instructions cause at least one security control from the one or more security controls to be changed, and wherein the access to the cloud application when the user account is used to access the cloud application is modified due to the change to the at least one security control.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes a count of unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used by the user account per day.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes one or more time differences corresponding to a use of different IP addresses by the user account.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving, using the activity data, a baseline profile associated with the user account, wherein the measure of anomalous activity is determined by comparing the profile to the baseline profile.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile includes a list of IP addresses and valid geolocations associated with the IP addresses.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

based on the measure of anomalous activity, determining a threat related to use of the cloud application when activity occurs from a geolocation that is not on the list of IP addresses and valid geolocations associated with the IP addresses.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile is derived from activity data collected over a time period, wherein the time period is one of a first time period from eight weeks prior to four weeks prior to a target date, a second time period from four weeks prior to one week prior to the target date, or a third time period from one week prior to the target date.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

calculating a risk score for the user, wherein the risk score is based on the profile; and

generating a ranking of a plurality of users of the cloud application based upon the risk score.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the risk score for the user is used to prioritize threat remediation actions associated with the cloud application, wherein prioritization enables the tenant to remediate most severe issues first.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes a number of login failures associated with the user account.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes a count of login failures greater than a predetermined threshold.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity data includes a count of number of downloads greater than a predetermined threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual data includes travel plans for the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual data includes credit card transactions by the user.

15. A system for detecting threat activity related to a cloud application, the system comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to and readable by the processor, the memory including one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive, from a service provider system, activity data corresponding to one or more actions performed during use of the cloud application by a user account with the cloud application, wherein the service provider system hosts the cloud application, wherein the user account is one of a set of user accounts associated with a tenant account provided by the service provider system for a tenant, wherein the set of user accounts enables one or more users associated with the tenant to access the cloud application;

receive, from a system that is different from the service provider system, contextual data associated with a user associated with the user account;

generate a profile for the user using the activity data and the contextual data, wherein the profile is associated with the user account;

determine a measure of anomalous activity using the profile;

determine one or more security controls of the service provider system, wherein the one or more security controls are used by the service provider system to configure access to the cloud application;

determine one or more instructions to send to the service provider system, wherein the one or more instructions are based on the measure of anomalous activity; and

send the one or more instructions to the service provider system, wherein the one or more instructions cause at least one security control from the one or more security controls to be changed, and wherein the access to the cloud application when the user account is used to access the cloud application is modified due to the change to the at least one security control.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data includes a count of unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used by the user account per day.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data includes one or more time differences corresponding to a use of different IP addresses by the user account.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions further include instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

derive, using the activity data, a baseline profile associated with the user account, wherein the measure of anomalous activity is determined by comparing the profile to the baseline profile.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the profile includes a list of IP addresses and valid geolocations associated with the IP addresses.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more instructions further include instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

based on the measure of anomalous activity, determine a threat related to use of the cloud application when activity occurs from a geolocation that is not on the list of IP addresses and valid geolocations associated with the IP addresses.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the profile is derived from activity data collected over a time period, wherein the time period is one of a first time period from eight weeks prior to four weeks prior to a target date, a second time period from four weeks prior to one week prior to the target date, or a third time period from one week prior to the target date.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more instructions further include instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

calculate a risk score for the user, wherein the risk score based on the profile; and

generate a ranking of a plurality of users of the cloud application based upon the risk score.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the risk score for the user is used to prioritize threat remediation actions associated with the cloud application, wherein prioritization enables the tenant to remediate most severe issues first.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data includes a number of login failures associated with the user account.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data includes a count of login failures greater than a predetermined threshold.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data includes a count of number of downloads greater than a predetermined threshold.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein the contextual data includes travel plans for the user.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein the contextual data includes credit card transactions by the user.