Privacy protection during insider threat monitoring

• US 10,262,153 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2017
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forcepoint LLC
• Original Assignee: Forcepoint LLC
• Inventors: Ford, Richard A., Shirey, Christopher B., Knepher, Jonathan B., Troyansky, Lidror
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwartz, Darren B
• Application Number:
  US15/816,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20190034657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 515 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/031 Protect user input by software means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/032 Protect output to user by software means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/16 Obfuscation or hiding, e.g. involving white box
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• 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 67/146 : Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• 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

Abstract

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for performing a privacy operation, comprising: monitoring user behavior via an Input/output collector, the Input/output collector capturing user/device interactions between a user and a device; determining whether the user/device interactions include sensitive personal information; obfuscating the sensitive personal information, the obfuscating preventing viewing of the sensitive personal information; storing obfuscated sensitive personal information within an obfuscated sensitive personal information repository; and, allowing access to the obfuscated sensitive personal information stored within the obfuscated sensitive personal information repository only when an administrator is authorized to access the obfuscated sensitive personal information so as to provide conditional sensitive personal information access.

Claims

1. A computer-implementable method for performing a privacy operation, comprising:

monitoring user behavior via an Input/output collector, the Input/output collector capturing user/device interactions between a user and a device, the Input/output collector capturing the user/device interactions through the use of at least one of an electronic device, a computer system comprising a hardware processor and a software application executing on the hardware processor of the computer system;

determining whether the user/device interactions include sensitive personal information;

obfuscating the sensitive personal information, the obfuscating preventing viewing of the sensitive personal information;

storing sensitive personal information that has been obfuscated within an obfuscated sensitive personal information repository, the sensitive personal information being stored via a one-way function, the one-way function preventing access to the sensitive personal information unless access to the sensitive personal information is authorized; and

,

allowing access to the sensitive personal information stored within the obfuscated sensitive personal information repository only when a security administrator is authorized to access the sensitive personal information, the allowing access only when the security administrator is authorized providing conditional sensitive personal information access, authorization to access the sensitive personal information being provided via a superior of the administrator, access to the sensitive personal information being via a security analytics system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data stream collector comprises a keystroke collector; and

,

the monitoring comprises collecting keystrokes resulting from user/device interactions, the keystrokes corresponding to the sensitive personal information being added to the one-way function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

storing the sensitive personal information comprises storing the sensitive personal information as a tamper-evident record, the tamper-evident record providing immutability of requests for conditional sensitive personal information access.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the allowing access further comprises determining whether an administrator is authorized to access the obfuscated sensitive personal information based upon a sensitive personal information policy.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the sensitive personal information policy is generated using a sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation, the sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation comprising determining factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy, the factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy comprising at least one of known user authentication factors, identification factors and risk-adaptive behavior factors.

6. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor; and

a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code interacting with a plurality of computer operations and comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for;

monitoring user behavior via an Input/output collector, the Input/output collector capturing user/device interactions between a user and a device, the Input/output collector capturing the user/device interactions through the use of at least one of an electronic device, a computer system comprising a hardware processor and a software application executing on the hardware processor of the computer system;

determining whether the user/device interactions include sensitive personal information;

obfuscating the sensitive personal information, the obfuscating preventing viewing of the sensitive personal information;

storing sensitive personal information that has been obfuscated within an obfuscated sensitive personal information repository, the sensitive personal information being stored via a one-way function, the one-way function preventing access to the sensitive personal information unless access to the sensitive personal information is authorized; and

,

allowing access to the sensitive personal information stored within the obfuscated sensitive personal information repository only when a security administrator is authorized to access the sensitive personal information, the allowing access only when the security administrator is authorized providing conditional sensitive personal information access, authorization to access the sensitive personal information being provided via a superior of the administrator, access to the sensitive personal information being via a security analytics system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the data stream collector comprises a keystroke collector; and

,

the monitoring comprises collecting keystrokes resulting from user/device interactions, the keystrokes corresponding to the sensitive personal information being added to the one-way function.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein:

storing the sensitive personal information comprises storing the sensitive personal information as a tamper-evident record, the tamper-evident record providing immutability of requests for conditional sensitive personal information access.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions executable by the processor are further configured for:

the allowing access further comprises determining whether an administrator is authorized to access the obfuscated sensitive personal information based upon a sensitive personal information policy.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions executable by the processor are further configured for:

the sensitive personal information policy is generated using a sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation, the sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation comprising determining factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy, the factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy comprising at least one of known user authentication factors, identification factors and risk-adaptive behavior factors.

11. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:

monitoring user behavior via an Input/output collector, the Input/output collector capturing user/device interactions between a user and a device, the Input/output collector capturing the user/device interactions through the use of at least one of an electronic device, a computer system comprising a hardware processor and a software application executing on the hardware processor of the computer system;

determining whether the user/device interactions include sensitive personal information;

obfuscating the sensitive personal information, the obfuscating preventing viewing of the sensitive personal information;

storing sensitive personal information that has been obfuscated within an obfuscated sensitive personal information repository, the sensitive personal information being stored via a one-way function, the one-way function preventing access to the sensitive personal information unless access to the sensitive personal information is authorized; and

,

allowing access to the sensitive personal information stored within the obfuscated sensitive personal information repository only when a security administrator is authorized to access the sensitive personal information, the allowing access only when the security administrator is authorized providing conditional sensitive personal information access, authorization to access the sensitive personal information being provided via a superior of the administrator, access to the sensitive personal information being via a security analytics system.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein:

the data stream collector comprises a keystroke collector; and

,

the monitoring comprises collecting keystrokes resulting from user/device interactions, the keystrokes corresponding to the sensitive personal information being added to the one-way function.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured for:

storing the sensitive personal information comprises storing the sensitive personal information as a tamper-evident record, the tamper-evident record providing immutability of requests for conditional sensitive personal information access.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer executable instructions are further configured for:

the allowing access further comprises determining whether an administrator is authorized to access the obfuscated sensitive personal information based upon a sensitive personal information policy.

15. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein:

the sensitive personal information policy is generated using a sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation, the sensitive personal information obfuscation and conditional access policy generation operation comprising determining factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy, the factors associated with a particular sensitive personal information policy comprising at least one of known user authentication factors, identification factors and risk-adaptive behavior factors.

16. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer executable instructions are deployable to a client system from a server system at a remote location.

17. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the computer executable instructions are provided by a service provider to a user on an on-demand basis.