Patents by Inventor Andrew J. Thomas

Andrew J. Thomas has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11783069
    Abstract: A collection of documents or other files and the like within an enterprise network are labelled according to an enterprise document classification scheme, and then a recognition model such as a neural network or other machine learning model can be used to automatically label other files throughout the enterprise network. In this manner, documents and the like throughout an enterprise can be automatically identified and managed according to features such as confidentiality, sensitivity, security risk, business value, and so forth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventor: Andrew J. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20230319113
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a computer system, information related to device health of an electronic device, determining, by the computer system, a health status of the electronic device based at least in part on the received information related to the device health of the electronic device, requesting, by a switch having a port connected to the electronic device, the health status of the electronic device from the computer system, receiving, by the computer system, the request for the health status of the electronic device from the switch, transmitting, by the computer system, the health status of the electronic device to the switch, evaluating, by the switch, the transmitted health status of the electronic device using network access rules associated corresponding to health statuses, and applying, by the switch, a network access control configuration to the port of the switch based on the evaluating the transmitted health status.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2022
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Biju Ramachandra Kaimal, Andrew J. Thomas, Kerav Vaidya, Yogesh Bansal
  • Publication number: 20230308460
    Abstract: When security-related behavior is detected on an endpoint, e.g., through a local security agent executing on the endpoint, a threat management facility associated with the endpoint can interact with a user via a second local security agent on a second endpoint in order to solicit verification, authorization, authentication or the like related to the behavior. In one aspect, an administrator for an enterprise managed by the threat management facility may verify, authorize, or otherwise approve the detected behavior using this technique. In another aspect, a user of the device may use this infrastructure to approve of a potentially risky behavior on one device by using a verification procedure on a second device associated with the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2023
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Johan Petter Nordwall, Karl Ackerman, Thomas John Walsh, Christoph Georg Hoyer, Mirco Stratmann, Kerav Vaidya
  • Patent number: 11755974
    Abstract: An automated system attempts to characterize code as safe or unsafe. For intermediate code samples not placed with sufficient confidence in either category, human-readable analysis is automatically generated to assist a human reviewer in reaching a final disposition. For example, a random forest over human-interpretable features may be created and used to identify suspicious features in a manner that is understandable to, and actionable by, a human reviewer. Similarly, a k-nearest neighbor algorithm may be used to identify similar samples of known safe and unsafe code based on a model for, e.g., a file path, a URL, an executable, and so forth. Similar code may then be displayed (with other information) to a user for evaluation in a user interface. This comparative information can improve the speed and accuracy of human interventions by providing richer context for human review of potential threats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Joshua Daniel Saxe, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Simon Neil Reed, Kenneth D. Ray, Joseph H. Levy
  • Patent number: 11741222
    Abstract: Attachments or other documents can be transmitted to a sandbox environment where they can be concurrently opened for remote preview from an endpoint and scanned for possible malware. A gateway or other intermediate network element may enforce this process by replacing attachments, for example, in incoming electronic mail communications, with links to a document preview hosted in the sandbox environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Ross McKerchar, John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa
  • Patent number: 11736522
    Abstract: An endpoint in a network periodically generates a heartbeat encoding health state information and transmits this heartbeat to other network entities. Recipients of the heartbeat may use the health state information to independently make decisions about communications with the source endpoint, for example, by isolating the endpoint to prevent further communications with other devices sharing the network with the endpoint. Isolation may be coordinated by a firewall or gateway for the network, or independently by other endpoints that receive a notification of the compromised health state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray, Karl Ackerman
  • Patent number: 11727143
    Abstract: A threat management system provides a collection of queries for investigating security issues within an enterprise. Useful inferences are drawn about the value of different queries, and about the security posture of the enterprise, by monitoring contextual activity such as the popularity and context of query usage, patterns of end user modification to queries, and post-query activity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Karl Ackerman, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11727333
    Abstract: An endpoint coupled in a communicating relationship with an enterprise network may include a data recorder configured to store an event stream of data indicating events on the endpoint including types of changes to computing objects, a filter configured to locally process the event stream into a filtered event stream including a subset of types of changes to the computing objects, and a local security agent. The local security agent may be configured to transmit the filtered event stream to a threat management facility, respond to a filter adjustment from the threat management facility by adjusting the filter to modify the subset of types of changes included in the filtered event stream, and respond to a query from the threat management facility by retrieving data stored in the data recorder over a time window before the query and excluded from the filtered event stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew G. P. Smith, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries
  • Patent number: 11720844
    Abstract: In a threat management platform, a number of endpoints log events in an event data recorder. A local agent filters this data and feeds a filtered data stream to a central threat management facility. The central threat management facility can locally or globally tune filtering by local agents based on the current data stream, and can query local event data recorders for additional information where necessary or helpful in threat detection or forensic analysis. The central threat management facility also stores and deploys a number of security tools such as a web-based user interface supported by machine learning models to identify potential threats requiring human intervention and other models to provide human-readable context for evaluating potential threats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew G. P. Smith, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries
  • Patent number: 11722516
    Abstract: A variety of techniques are disclosed for detection of advanced persistent threats and similar malware. In one aspect, the detection of certain network traffic at a gateway is used to trigger a query of an originating endpoint, which can use internal logs to identify a local process that is sourcing the network traffic. In another aspect, an endpoint is configured to periodically generate and transmit a secure heartbeat, so that an interruption of the heartbeat can be used to signal the possible presence of malware. In another aspect, other information such as local and global reputation information is used to provide context for more accurate malware detection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventor: Andrew J. Thomas
  • Patent number: 11722521
    Abstract: A firewall uses information about an application that originates a network request to determine whether and how to forward the request over a network. The firewall may more generally rely on the identity of the originating application, the security state of the originating application, the security state of the endpoint, and any other information that might provide an indication of malicious activity, to make routing and forwarding decisions for endpoint-originated network traffic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Karl Ackerman, James Douglas Bean, Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Stutz
  • Patent number: 11714902
    Abstract: In embodiments of the present invention, a framework for an extensible, file-based security system is described for determining an appropriate application, application environment, and/or access or security control measure based at least in part on a file's reputation. In response to the selection of a file, an application controller may be used to select a software application from two or more software applications to open the selected file, based at least in part on the selected file's reputation. If launched, a software application may be configured to open the file in an environment, such as a virtual machine, quarantined environment, and the like, that is appropriate for the file based at least in part on the reputation information. A software application may be a secure software application configured to manage secure files, or an insecure software application configured to manage insecure files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventor: Andrew J. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20230214514
    Abstract: An authentication model dynamically adjusts authentication factors required for access to a remote resource based on changes to a risk score for a user, a device, or some combination of these. For example, the authentication model may conditionally specify the number and type of authentication factors required by a user/device pair, and may dynamically alter authentication requirements based on changes to a current risk assessment for the user/device while the remote resource is in use.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2023
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventors: Joseph H. Levy, Andrew J. Thomas, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20230208879
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a technique for detecting potential phishing attacks by monitoring outbound web traffic from an endpoint, along with inbound electronic mail traffic addressed to a user of the endpoint. With this information, a search can be performed for possible sources in the web traffic of a request for a hyperlink located in the inbound mail traffic, and when no source is located, phishing remediation can be performed, including restrictions on access to the hyperlink at an endpoint operated by the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2023
    Publication date: June 29, 2023
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Karl Ackerman, James Douglas Bean, Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Stutz
  • Publication number: 20230185945
    Abstract: A threat management facility stores a number of entity models that characterize reportable events from one or more entities. A stream of events from compute instances within an enterprise network can then be analyzed using these entity models to detect behavior that is inconsistent or anomalous for one or more of the entities that are currently active within the enterprise network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2023
    Publication date: June 15, 2023
    Inventors: Joseph H. Levy, Andrew J. Thomas, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11657174
    Abstract: An authentication model dynamically adjusts authentication factors required for access to a remote resource based on changes to a risk score for a user, a device, or some combination of these. For example, the authentication model may conditionally specify the number and type of authentication factors required by a user/device pair, and may dynamically alter authentication requirements based on changes to a current risk assessment for the user/device while the remote resource is in use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Joseph H. Levy, Andrew J. Thomas, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20230123781
    Abstract: In order to use zero trust network resources distributed across multiple gateways, an agent is deployed on an endpoint of an enterprise network. The agent maps requests for specific applications to corresponding gateways. The agent may also multiplex or otherwise aggregate communications among different network applications and gateways in order to provide seamless, transparent access to the distributed resources at a single endpoint, and/or within a single interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Publication date: April 20, 2023
    Inventors: Biju Ramachandra Kaimal, Andrew J. Thomas, Venkata Suresh Reddy Obulareddy, Mayur Premi, Robert W. Cook, Ramesh Kamath, Matthew Charles Setzer, Madan Mohan Nayak
  • Publication number: 20230118204
    Abstract: A multi-endpoint event graph causally relates a sequence of events among a number of computing objects at a number of logical locations including multiple endpoints in an enterprise network. The multi-endpoint event graph is used to detect malware based on malicious software moving through the enterprise network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2022
    Publication date: April 20, 2023
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew J. Thomas, Andrew G. P. Smith, Russell Humphries
  • Publication number: 20230114821
    Abstract: A threat management facility receives data from a variety of sources such as compute instances within an enterprise network, cloud service providers supporting the enterprise network, and third-party data providers such as geolocation services. In order to facilitate prompt notification of potential risks, the threat management facility may incrementally update data for use in threat assessments as the data becomes available from these different sources, and create suitable alerts or notifications whenever the currently accumulated data provides an indication of threat meeting a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2022
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Mangal Rakesh Vankadaru, Prakash Kumar Talreja, Timothy Rayment, Biju Balakrishnan Nair
  • Publication number: 20230111864
    Abstract: An asynchronous stream of security events is added to a data lake for enterprise security by identifying groups of related events related to a security threat, and creating rules to fold these related events into a single security event along with metadata. The folding rules may then be applied to security events in the event stream to compress data in the data lake and improve detection efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2022
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Mangal Rakesh Vankadaru, Prakash Kumar Talreja, Timothy Rayment