Method and apparatus for remotely inspecting properties of communicating devices

• US 6,931,434 B1
• Filed: 03/09/2000
• Issued: 08/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: BigFix, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Lippincott, Lisa Ellen, Donoho, David Leigh, Hindawi, David Salim
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone, Jason D
• Application Number:
  US09/522,186
• Time in Patent Office: 1,986 Days
• Field of Search: 709/207, 709/224, 707/3, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers who have a precisely formulated need for the information. This targeting may be based on information which is inaccessible to other communications protocols. The targeting also includes a time element. Information can be brought to the attention of the consumer precisely when it has become applicable, which may occur immediately upon receipt of the message, but may also occur long after the message arrives. The communications process may operate without intruding on consumers who do not exhibit the precisely-specified need for the information, and it may operate without compromising the security or privacy of the consumers who participate.

Claims

1. A method for remotely inspecting properties of communicating devices, comprising the steps of:

providing an inspector library containing executable code which is invoked as part of a continual relevance evaluation process;

providing one or more remote inspector methods for remotely performing any of mathematico-logical calculations, executing computational algorithms, returning the results of system calls, accessing the contents of storage devices, and querying said communicating devices;

communicating a query between a consumer computer and a remote computer, expressing precisely said query contents, wherein said remote computer is alert for incoming queries;

proving identity at each end of said communication;

said remote computer communicating an answer back to said consumer computer; and

expressing said query in a language so an advice author is accessing a remote inspector method at said remote computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a personal information access protocol, wherein an advice provider authors advisories which refer not only to properties of a consumer computer and its environment, but also to properties accessible by query from said consumer computer.

3. The method of claim 2, said personal information access protocol comprising the steps of:

a consumer anonymously initiating a subscription, wherein the act of subscription does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes and wherein there is no registration process associated with said subscription;

a consumer advice reader anonymously gathering advice from an advice site, wherein the act of gathering advice does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes and wherein advice is made freely and anonymously available;

said consumer advice reader evaluating said advice for relevance, wherein the act of evaluating relevance does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes;

said consumer advice reader displaying a document authored by an advice provider, explaining why a certain advisory is relevant, and proposing a solution/response; and

said consumer evaluating said document and, potentially, accepting said proposed solution/response, wherein the act of passively viewing a relevant advisory does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said subscription step comprises the step of interacting between said consumer and a consumer'"'"'s own advice reader, but not between said consumer and an external advice provider.

5. The method of claim 4, said consumer'"'"'s advice reader obtaining from said consumer a selection of advice sites of interest and storing those on said consumer'"'"'s computer only as part of a database maintained locally by a subscription manager component of said consumer'"'"'s advice reader.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

using a proxy server for consumers having static IP addresses who do not wish to divulge their true IP address.

7. The method of claim 3, said advice gathering step always accessing all documents available at a certain site, which are not already present on a consumer machine, wherein no selection of any kind is performed at gathering time, and wherein relevance is determined only after all advice is gathered and stored on said consumer computer.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said advice reader does not apply recommended solution operators automatically, but only after consumer approval.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

configuring said advice reader to restrict a domain of allowed relevance checking to a domain where said consumer has physical control.

10. The method of claim 9, said configuring step comprising any of the steps of:

disallowing conditional evaluation of clauses;

randomly reordering subexpressions for conditional evaluation;

always forcing evaluation of subexpressions involving network activity; and

decoupling network activity from relevance evaluation.

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing an anonymous selective update protocol, in which each advisory message is abstracted into a short form consisting of at least a message identifier referring to an original advisory, and in which said advice reader ensures that it has at least an abstract for each message by issuing requests for all abstracts of all advisories that are now since a previous synchronization.

12. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing random gathering, wherein said advice reader requests full advisory bodies for some advisories whose relevance clauses are not relevant.

13. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing a proxy server, which anonymously forwards advisory body requests to an advice site, and thereby masks to said advice site the identity of a requester.

14. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing a proprietary server.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing a centralized remailer by the use of anonymous mailing lists.

16. The method of claim 1, said one or more remote inspector methods performing one or more remote physical measurements.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said one or more remote physical measurements comprise any of position, temperature, voltage, and status of a process.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said one or more remote physical measurements comprise a relevance clause for targeting individuals whose system time is incorrectly set.

19. The method of claim 1, said one or more remote inspector methods performing one or more remote device queries.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said one or more remote device queries is provided to a currently selected printer to determine if said printer is properly configured.

21. The method of claim 1, said one or more remote inspector methods performing remote computation.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said one or more remote computations comprise a calculation specified by any of a formula, program, or script provided by said one or more remote inspector methods.

23. The method of claim 1, said one or more remote inspector methods performing one or more remote database queries.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said one or more database queries anonymously and proactively targets employees listed in an organizational database.

25. The method of claim 1, said one or more remote inspector methods performing remote relevance invocation.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said remote relevance invocation passes a relevance clause to a remote device and obtains a result, as evaluated by said remote device in said device'"'"'s environment.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a trust relationship between a consumer computer requesting remote service and a device or computer fulfilling said request to allow automatic evaluation of relevance.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a mechanism for issuing advisories warning against any of unethical, ineffective, errant, or bad sites or advisories;

wherein said warning is issued against any of one specific message, messages with certain contents, or messages on certain topics.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a protocol for information exchange over open public networks which imposes a high standard of information ethics.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a central authority for offering an anonymous advice gathering server which accepts advice gathering requests from consumers, strips said advice gathering requests of return addresses, routes said advice gathering requests to advice sites, and forwards returned information to said consumer.

31. A personal information access protocol comprising:

means for a consumer to anonymously initiate a subscription, wherein the act of subscription does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes and wherein there is no registration process associated with said subscription;

a consumer advice reader for anonymously gathering advice from an advice site, wherein the act of gathering advice does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes and wherein advice is made freely and anonymously available;

said consumer advice reader evaluating said advice for relevance, wherein the act of evaluating relevance does not divulge said consumer'"'"'s identity or attributes; and

said consumer advice reader displaying a document authored by an advice provider, explaining why a certain advisory, is relevant, and proposing a solution/response;

wherein said consumer evaluates said document and, potentially, accepting said proposed solution/response, wherein the act of passively viewing a relevant advisory does not divulge said consumers identity or attributes.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein said subscription initiating means comprises means for interacting between said consumer and a consumer'"'"'s own advice reader, but not between said consumer and an external advice provider.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, said consumer'"'"'s advice reader obtaining from said consumer a selection of advice sites of interest and storing those on said consumer'"'"'s computer only as part of a database maintained locally by a subscription manager component of said consumer'"'"'s advice reader.

34. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a mechanism for issuing advisories warning against unethical sites.

35. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a protocol for information exchange over open public networks which imposes a high standard of information ethics.

36. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a proxy server for consumers having static IP addresses who do not wish to divulge their true IP address.

37. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a central authority for offering an anonymous advice gathering server which accepts advice gathering requests from consumers, strips said advice gathering requests of return addresses, routes said advice gathering requests to advice sites, and forwards returned information to said consumer.

38. The apparatus of claim 31, said advice gathering always accessing all documents available at a certain site, which are not already present on a consumer machine, wherein no selection of any kind is performed at gathering time, and wherein relevance is determined only after all advice is gathered and stored on said consumer computer.

39. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein said advice reader does not apply recommended solution operators automatically, but only after consumer approval.

40. The apparatus of claim 31, further

means for configuring said advice reader to restrict a domain of allowed relevance checking to a domain where said consumer has physical control.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, said configuring means performing any of:

disallowing conditional evaluation of clauses;

randomly reordering subexpressions for conditional evaluation;

always forcing evaluation of subexpressions involving network activity; and

decoupling network activity from relevance evaluation.

42. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

an anonymous selective update, protocol, in which each advisory message is abstracted into a short form consisting of at least a message identifier referring to an original advisory, and in which said advice reader ensures that it has at least an abstract for each message by issuing requests for all abstracts of all advisories that are new since a previous synchronization.

43. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

means for providing random gathering, wherein said advice reader requests full advisory bodies for some advisories whose relevance clauses are not relevant.

44. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a proxy server, which anonymously forwards advisory body requests to an advice site, and thereby masks to said advice site the identity of a requester.

45. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a proprietary server.

46. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising:

a centralized remaller by the use of anonymous mailing lists.

47. An apparatus for remotely inspecting properties of communicating devices, comprising:

an inspector library containing executable code which is invoked as part of a continual relevance evaluation process; and

one or more remote inspector methods for remotely performing any of mathematico-logical calculations, executing computational algorithms, returning the results of system calls, accessing the contents of storage devices, and querying said communicating devices;

said one or more remote injector methods performing one or more remote physical measurements;

wherein said one or more remote physical measurements comprise any of position, temperature, voltage, and status of a process.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, said one or more remote inspector methods performing one or more remote device queries.

49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein said one or more remote device queries is provided to a currently selected printer to determine if said printer is properly configured.

50. The apparatus of claim 47, said one or more remote inspector methods performing remote computation.

51. The apparatus of claim 50, wherein said one or more remote computations comprise a calculation specified by any of a formula, program, or script provided by said one or more remote inspector methods.

52. The apparatus of claim 47, said one or more remote inspector methods performing one or more remote database queries.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein said one or more database queries anonymously and proactively targets employees listed in an organizational database.

54. The apparatus of claim 47, said one or more remote inspector methods performing remote relevance invocation.

55. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein said remote relevance invocation passes a relevance clause to a remote device and obtains a result, as evaluated by said remote device in said device'"'"'s environment.

56. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein said one or more remote physical measurements comprise a relevance clause for targeting individuals whose system time is incorrectly set.

57. The apparatus of claim 47, further comprising:

means for providing either of a trust relationship or authentication between a consumer computer requesting remote service and a device or computer fulfilling said request to allow automatic evaluation of relevance.

58. The apparatus of claim 47, further comprising:

a personal information access protocol, wherein an advice provider authors advisories which refer not only to properties of a consumer computer and its environment, but also to properties accessible by query from said consumer computer.