System and method for appending security information to search engine results

• US 20070143271A1
• Filed: 11/29/2006
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Finjan Holdings, Inc. (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Finjan Software Limited (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Limor, Elbaz, Yuval, Ben-Itzhak
• Granted Patent: US 8,015,182 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/51 at application loading time, e.g. accepting, rejecting, starting or inhibiting executable software based on integrity or source reliability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links

Abstract

A system for appending security information to search engine results, including a search engine for locating, in a computer network, web pages that include at least one designated search term, for issuing a security analysis request to a content security scanner to assess at least one designated web page for potential security risks, and for preparing a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages and security assessments for the located web pages, a client computer communicatively coupled with the search engine for issuing a search request with at least one user designated search term, to the search engine, and for receiving the search results summary from the search engine, and a content security scanner communicatively coupled with the search engine for assessing security of content in at least one designated web page. A method and computer-readable storage media are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

receiving a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer;

locating web content in a computer network that includes the at least one designated search term;

requesting assessment of the located web content for potential security risks;

receiving an assessment indicating potential security risks; and

transmitting a search results summary that includes security assessments and links to the located web content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results summary is generated based upon user configuration information received from the client computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results summary transmitted to the client computer displays links to web content assessed to have potential security risks in a different color.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results summary transmitted to the client computer displays links to web content assessed to have potential security risks by providing special icons adjacent to the links.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search results summary transmitted to the client computer includes links to located web content assessed to be of low risk to the security of the client computer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the search results summary enables a client computer to filter out links to web content assessed to have potential security risks from being displayed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein web content comprises a web page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein web content comprises media content, which includes at least one of the group consisting of an audio file comprising a song, an audio file comprising speech, an image file comprising a picture, a video file comprising a video clip, a video file comprising a movie, a file comprising an animation, a file comprising a presentation, and a file comprising a slide show.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing information pertaining to the received security assessment in a cache.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the assessment is first requested within the search engine by checking a list identifying web content known to have a low security risk.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein an assessment is requested of an external content scanner upon determining that that the web content is not identified on the list of web content known to have a low security risk.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the assessment is requested for a portion of the search results that will be presented to the user on a search results summary web page.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein additional assessments are requested for additional portions of the search results once requests are received from the client computer for additional search results summary web pages.

14. A system for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

a search engine for receiving at least one user-designated search term from a client computer, for locating, in a computer network, web content that includes the received at least one designated search term, for issuing a security analysis request to assess at least one located item of web content for potential security risks, and for preparing a search results summary to be transmitted to the client computer that incorporates a security assessment for the assessed item of web content; and

a content security scanner communicatively coupled with the search engine for responding to the issued security analysis request to assess security associated with the item of web content.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine prepares the search results summary based upon user configuration information received from the client computer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein a user can configure the search engine to transmit the search results summary with links to web content assessed to have potential security risks displayed in a different color.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein a user can configure the search results summary to display links to web content assessed to have potential security risks by providing special icons adjacent to the links.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the search engine transmits data such that a client computer is enabled to filter out links to web content assessed to have potential security risks from being displayed in the search results summary.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein web content comprises web pages.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein web content comprises media content, which includes at least one of the group consisting of an audio file comprising a song, an audio file comprising speech, an image file comprising a picture, a video file comprising a video clip, a video file comprising a movie, a file comprising an animation, a file comprising a presentation, and a file comprising a slide show.

21. Computer-readable storage media storing program code for causing a plurality of computing devices to cooperatively:

receive a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer;

locate web content in a computer network that includes the at least one designated search term;

assess the located web content for potential security risks; and

transmit a search results summary that includes links to the located web content and security assessments for the located web content.

22. A system for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

a search engine for locating, in a computer network, web pages that include at least one designated search term, for preparing a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages, for embedding an active program within the search results, and for issuing a security analysis request to a content security scanner to assess at least one designated web page for potential security risks;

a client computer communicatively coupled with said search engine for issuing a search request with at least one user designated search term to said search engine, for receiving the search results summary from said search engine, and for executing the active program;

a content security scanner communicatively coupled with said search engine, for assessing security of content in at least one designated web page for potential security risks, and for storing the security assessments in a database that stores security assessments for content in web pages, the database being indexed by links to web pages; and

a database manager communicatively coupled with said search engine and with said client computer, which is invoked by the active program, for retrieving from the database security assessments for content in at least one designated web page.

23. A method for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

receiving a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer,

locating web pages in a computer network that include the at least one designated search term;

preparing a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages;

embedding an active program within the search results summary, the active program for retrieving security assessments for the located web pages from the database;

assessing content in the located web pages for potential security risks; and

storing the assessments of content in the located web pages within a database that stores security assessments for content in web pages, the database being indexed by references to web pages.

24. Computer-readable storage media storing program code for causing a plurality of computing devices to cooperatively:

receive a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer;

locate web pages in a computer network that include the at least one designated search term;

prepare a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages;

embed an active program within the search results summary, the active program for retrieving security assessments for the located web pages from the database;

assess content in the located web pages for potential security risks; and

store the assessments of content in the located web pages within a database that stores security assessments for content in web pages, the database being indexed by references to web pages.

25. A system for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

a search engine for locating, in a computer network, web pages that include at least one designated search term, for preparing a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages, and for embedding an active program within the search results summary;

a client computer communicatively coupled with said search engine for issuing a search request with at least one user designated search term to said search engine, for receiving the search results summary from said search engine, and for executing the active program; and

a content security scanner communicatively coupled with said client computer, which is invoked by the active program, for assessing security of content in at least one designated web page for potential security risks.

26. A method for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

receiving a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer;

locating web pages in a computer network that include the at least one designated search term;

preparing a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages;

embedding an active program within the search results summary, the active program for requesting security analysis of at least one designated web page; and

assessing content in the at least one designated web page for potential security risks.

27. Computer-readable storage media storing program code for causing a plurality of computing devices to cooperatively:

receive a search request with at least one designated search term from a client computer;

locate web pages in a computer network that include the at least one designated search term;

prepare a search results summary that includes links to the located web pages;

embed an active program within the search results summary, the active program for requesting security analysis of at least one designated web page; and

assess content in the at least one designated web page for potential security risks.

28. A system for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

a client computer for issuing a search request with at least one designated search term;

a search engine for locating, in a computer network, web pages that include at least one designated search term;

a content security scanner for assessing security of content in at least one designated web page, for potential security risks; and

a web application coupled with said client computer, with said search engine and with said content security scanner, for receiving a search request from said client computer, for issuing a search request to said search engine, for issuing a security analysis request to said content security scanner based on search results received from said search engine, for preparing a results summary that includes links to located web pages and security assessments for the located web pages based on results received from said content security scanner, and for returning the results summary to said client computer.

29. A system for appending security information to search engine results, comprising:

a database manager for storing and retrieving security assessments, from a database that stores security assessments for content in web pages, the database being indexed by reference to web pages;

a client computer coupled with said database manager, for issuing a search request with at least one designated search term, and for executing active program code for retrieving security assessments for content in designated web pages from the database;

a search engine for locating, in a computer network, web pages that include at least one designated search term;

a content security scanner coupled with said database manager, for assessing security of content in at least one designated web page, for potential security risks, and for storing the assessments within the database; and

a web application coupled with said client computer, with said search engine and with said content security scanner, for receiving a search request from said client computer, for issuing a search request to said search engine, for issuing a security analysis request to said content security scanner based on search results received from said search engine, and for returning the search results, together with the active program code to said client computer.