System and Methods for Remotely Recovering and Purging Data From a Wireless Device in a Communications Network

• US 20110078501A1
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Andres, Robert, Koch, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/88 Detecting or preventing theft or loss
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/62 Uninstallation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer

Abstract

A system and methods are provided for remotely recovering and purging data from a wireless device in a communications network. The system includes a wireless device capable of executing a data recovery/purge application program for receiving a message from a communications device in the network. The application program retrieves the data in the wireless device, purges the data from the wireless device, and sends a return message, including the data retrieved from the wireless device, to the communications device.

Claims

1. A system for remote recovery of data, the system comprising:

a communications network;

a communication device in communication with the communications network;

a customer profile database on the communications network;

a voice node on the communications network, the voice node in communication with the customer profile database, the voice node containing a first data recovery application; and

a wireless device in communication with the voice node, the wireless device containing a second data recovery application,

wherein the voice node receives a voice call from the communication device for locating the wireless device when the wireless device is lost or stolen, the first data recovery application is executed upon the voice node to retrieve information from the customer profile database associated with a wireless directory number for the wireless device, the first data recovery application utilizes the information to compose and send a message to the wireless device, and the second data recovery application executes on the wireless device according to the message.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a switch on the communications network, wherein the switch connects the communication device with the communications network.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the switch on a public switched telephone network.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the switch is a mobile switching center.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication device is one of a standard wireline telephone set and a wireless telephone.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second network in communication with the communications network, wherein the second network enables communication between the wireless device and the voice node.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second network is one or more of a local area network and a wide area network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the message contains a request to recover data saved on the wireless device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the message further contains a return address for sending recovered data.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the message contains a request to purge saved data from the wireless device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the message further contains a return address for a confirmation of a data purge.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice node is a server computer with interactive voice response functionality.

13. A method for remote recovery of data, the method comprising:

receiving a voice call from a communication device over a communications network, the voice call for locating a wireless device when the wireless device is lost or stolen;

executing a first data recovery application to retrieve information from a customer profile database associated with a wireless directory number for the wireless device;

composing a message to the wireless device based upon the information; and

sending the message to the wireless device,

wherein the wireless device executes a second data recovery application according to the message.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message contains a request to recover data saved on the wireless device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the message further contains a return address for sending recovered data.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the message contains a request to purge saved data from the wireless device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the message further contains a return address for a confirmation of a data purge.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the communication device is one of a standard wireline telephone set and a wireless telephone.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein a second network is in communication with the communications network, the second network enabling communication with the wireless device.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising executing an e-mail server program to send the message to the wireless device.