System and method for securely managing enterprise related applications and data on portable communication devices

• US 9,208,310 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2013
• Issued: 12/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited (Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Cognizant Technology Solutions India Private Limited (Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.)
• Inventors: Gudipati, Ambaprasad
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwartz, Darren B
• Application Number:
  US14/017,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20150007350A1
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/54 by adding security routines or objects to programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment

Abstract

A system and computer-implemented method for securely managing enterprise related applications and associated data on one or more portable communication devices is provided. The system comprises one or more appboxes, residing on the one or more portable communication devices, configured to secure, monitor and collect information related to at least one of: one or more applications and associated data and the one or more portable communication devices. The system further comprises a server configured to facilitate one or more administrators to monitor and manage overall functionality of at least one of: the one or more applications and associated data and the one or more portable communication devices using the collected information.

Claims

1. A system for securely managing enterprise related applications and associated data on one or more portable communication devices related to an enterprise, the system comprising:

one or more appboxes, the one or more appboxes residing on the one or more portable communication devices and host one or more applications, the one or more applications are accessed by one or more employees of the enterprise using the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications are associated with the one or more employees based on roles of the one or more employees in the enterprise, the one or more applications while being hosted on the one or more appboxes run on operating system of the one or more portable communication devices, the one or more appboxes are configured to secure, monitor and collect information related to;

the one or more applications hosted on the one or more appboxes and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices; and

a server configured to facilitate one or more administrators to install, monitor and manage overall functionality of;

the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications hosted on the one or more appboxes and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices using the collected information, wherein each of the one or more appboxes is installed based on identity and role of the employee in the enterprise, further wherein the installation of the one or more appboxes results in automatic installation of the one or more applications on the one or more appboxes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more appboxes comprise an AppGuard configured to secure the one or more applications and associated data and further configured to:

receive authentication details from the one or more employees via the one or more portable communication devices;

perform a check to ascertain if the received authentication details are valid;

perform a check to ascertain if the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame; and

allow the one or more employees to access the one or more appboxes and the one or more applications and associated data if it is ascertained that the received authentication details are valid and the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein securing the one or more applications and associated data comprises at least one of:

encrypting the data associated with the one or more applications, preventing sharing of documents via one or more communication channels, preventing capturing of data as a screenshot, preventing unauthorized access to databases, preventing file download, maintaining file download limit, managing one or more network connections, preventing copying and pasting of objects, creating secure service calls, capturing and storing runtime events information, auditing logs, detecting threats and attacks on the one or more applications and facilitating deploying one or more counter measures.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more portable communication devices are monitored and information related to the one or portable communication devices is collected when the one or more appboxes are accessed by one or more employees.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein monitoring and managing the overall functionality of at least one of:

the one or more applications and associated data and the one or more portable communication devices by the one or more administrators comprise;

monitoring applications usage, employee engagement, response time, transactions and resource usage, upgrading the one or more applications, deploying counter measures, locking and unlocking the one or more appboxes, deleting the one or more applications, deleting the data associated with the one or more applications, checking statuses of the one or more portable communication devices, accessing application logs and viewing any other information related to the one or more applications and the one or more portable communication devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server further comprises an admin module configured to facilitate the one or more administrators to:

configure the one or more appboxes on the one or more portable communication devices;

install the one or more applications on the one or more configured appboxes; and

control and manage the configured one or more appboxes and the one or more installed applications;

wherein configuring the one or more appboxes and installing the one or more applications is based on profiles of the one or more employees.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more applications include at least one of:

one or more applications installed by the one or more administrators and one or more optional applications which are downloaded by the one or more employees.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more appboxes are designed to securely host the one or more applications and associated data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more portable communication devices include at least one of:

a notebook, a laptop, a mobile phone, a smart phone and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more appboxes comprise an AppHealth module configured to manage health of the one or more applications by tracing one or more problems and providing one or more remedial measures and further wherein tracing problems and providing one or more remedial measures comprise performing at least one of:

diagnosis, debugging and backing up local data in case of crashing of the one or more applications.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the collected information related to the one or more applications and associated data include at least one of:

application usage, application responsiveness, battery usage and employee engagement with the one or more applications.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the collected information related to the one or more portable communication devices include at least one of:

device identifier, device type, operating system version, device connectivity and device location.

13. A computer-implemented method for securely managing enterprise related applications and associated data on one or more portable communication devices related to an enterprise, via program instructions stored in a memory and executed by a processor, the computer-implemented method comprising:

allowing one or more employees to access one or more appboxes, and one or more applications and associated data, wherein the one or more appboxes reside on the one or more portable communication devices, the one or more applications are accessed by one or more employees of the enterprise using the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications are associated with the one or more employees based on roles of the one or more employees in the enterprise, the one or more applications while being hosted on the one or more appboxes run on operating system of the one or more portable communication devices;

securing, monitoring and collecting, by the one or more appboxes, information related to;

the one or more applications hosted on the one or more appboxes and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices;

sending, from the one or more appboxes, the collected information to a server on a real time basis; and

facilitating, at the server, the one or more administrators to install, manage and monitor overall functionality of;

the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices using the information received by the server, wherein each of the one or more appboxes is installed based on identity and role of the employee in the enterprise, further wherein the installation of the one or more appboxes results in automatic installation of the one or more applications on the one or more appboxes.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the step of allowing the one or more employees to access the one or more Appboxes and the one or more applications comprise:

receiving authentication details from the one or more employees via the one or more portable communication devices;

performing a check to ascertain if the received authentication details are valid;

performing a check to ascertain if the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame; and

allowing the one or more employees to access the one or more appboxes and the one or more applications if it is ascertained that the received authentication details are valid and the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the step of securing the one or more applications and associated data comprises at least one of:

encrypting the data associated with the one or more applications, preventing sharing of documents via one or more communication channels, preventing capturing of data as a screenshot, preventing unauthorized access to databases, preventing file download, maintaining file download limit, managing one or more network connections, preventing copying and pasting of objects, creating secure service calls, capturing and storing runtime events information, auditing logs, detecting threats and attacks on the one or more applications and facilitating deploying one or more counter measures.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the one or more portable communication devices are monitored and information related to the one or portable communication devices is collected when the one or more appboxes are accessed by one or more employees.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprise facilitating the one or more administrators to:

configure the one or more appboxes on the one or more portable communication devices;

install the one or more applications on the one or more appboxes; and

control and manage the one or more configured appboxes and the one or more installed applications;

wherein the step of configuring the one or more appboxes and installing the one or more applications is based on profiles of the one or more employees.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the one or more applications include at least one of:

one or more applications installed by the one or more administrators and one or more optional applications which are downloaded by the one or more employees.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the one or more appboxes are designed to securely host the one or more applications.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the one or more portable communication devices include at least one of:

a notebook, a laptop, a mobile phone, a smart phone and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising the step of managing the health of the one or more applications, wherein managing the health of the one or more applications comprise tracing one or more problems and providing one or more remedial measures and further wherein tracing the one or more problems and providing the one or more remedial measures comprise performing at least one of:

diagnosis, debugging and backing up local data in case of crashing of the one or more applications.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the collected information related to the one or more applications and associated data include at least one of:

application usage, application responsiveness, battery usage and employee engagement with the one or more applications.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the collected information related to the one or more portable communication devices include at least one of:

device identifier, device type, operating system version, device connectivity and device location.

24. A computer program product for securely managing enterprise related applications and associated data on one or more portable communication devices related to an enterprise, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code stored thereon, the computer-readable program code comprising instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to;

allow one or more employees to access one or more appboxes and one or more applications and associated data, wherein the one or more appboxes reside on the one or more portable communication devices, the one or more applications are accessed by one or more employees of the enterprise using the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications are associated with the one or more employees based on roles of the one or more employees in the enterprise, the one or more applications while being hosted on the one or more appboxes run on operating system of the one or more portable communication devices;

secure, monitor and collect, by the one or more appboxes, information related to;

the one or more applications hosted on the one or more appboxes and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices;

send, from the one or more appboxes, the collected information to a server on a real time basis; and

facilitate, at the server, the one or more administrators to install, manage and monitor overall functionality of;

the one or more appboxes, the one or more applications hosted on the one or more appboxes and associated data, and the one or more portable communication devices using the information received by the server, wherein each of the one or more appboxes is installed based on identity and role of the employee in the enterprise, further wherein the installation of the one or more appboxes results in automatic installation of the one or more applications on the one or more appboxes.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein allowing the one or more employees to access the one or more Appboxes and the one or more applications comprise:

receiving authentication details from the one or more employees via the one or more portable communication devices;

performing a check to ascertain if the received authentication details are valid;

performing a check to ascertain if the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame; and

allowing the one or more employees to access the one or more appboxes and the one or more applications if it is ascertained that the received authentication details are valid and the one or more employees are accessing the one or more appboxes within permissible geographical limit and time frame.

26. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein securing the one or more applications and associated data comprises at least one of:

encrypting the data associated with the one or more applications, preventing sharing of documents via one or more communication channels, preventing capturing of data as a screenshot, preventing unauthorized access to databases, preventing file download, maintaining file download limit, managing one or more network connections, preventing copying and pasting of objects, creating secure service calls, capturing and storing runtime events information, auditing logs, detecting threats and attacks on the one or more applications and facilitating deploying one or more counter measures.

27. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the one or more portable communication devices are monitored and information related to the one or portable communication devices is collected when the one or more appboxes are accessed by one or more employees.

28. The computer program product of claim 24 further comprises facilitating the one or more administrators to:

configure the one or more appboxes on the one or more portable communication devices;

install the one or more applications on the one or more appboxes; and

control and manage the one or more configured appboxes and the one or more installed applications;

wherein the step of configuring the one or more appboxes and installing the one or more applications is based on profiles of the one or more employees.

29. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the one or more applications include at least one of:

one or more applications installed by the one or more administrators and one or more optional applications which are downloaded by the one or more employees.

30. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the one or more appboxes are designed to securely host the one or more applications.

31. The computer program product of claim 24 further comprising managing the health of the one or more applications, wherein managing the health of the one or more applications comprise tracing one or more problems and providing one or more remedial measures and further wherein tracing the one or more problems and providing the one or more remedial measures comprise performing at least one of:

diagnosis, debugging and backing up local data in case of crashing of the one or more applications.

32. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the collected information related to the one or more applications and associated data include at least one of:

application usage, application responsiveness, battery usage and employee engagement with the one or more applications.

33. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein the collected information related to the one or more portable communication devices include at least one of:

device identifier, device type, operating system version, device connectivity and device location.