Patents by Inventor Ben A. Wuest

Ben A. Wuest 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: 11930017
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. Based on identity and audit data received from a set of cloud deployments, and according to a cloud intelligence model, a set of permissions associated with each of a set of identities are determined. For each identity, and based on a set of identity chains extracted from the cloud intelligence model, a set of identity account action paths (IAAPs) are then determined. An IAAP defines how the identity obtains an ability to perform a given action in a given account. Using the identity account action paths together with context information, one or more roles, groups and accounts in the enterprise that are propagating permissions within the public cloud environment are then identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Veranika Hadun, William Bird, Ben Wuest
  • Patent number: 11902354
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Publication number: 20230179649
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2023
    Publication date: June 8, 2023
    Applicant: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Publication number: 20230110220
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. The data model also supports a cloud “least privilege and access” framework. Least privilege is a set of minimum permissions that are associated to a given identity; least access is a minimal set of persons that need to have access to given piece data. The framework maps an identity to one or more actions collected in cloud audit logs, and dynamically-build a compete view of an identity's effective permissions. The resulting least privilege and access policies are then applied natively to a given cloud environment to manage access.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2021
    Publication date: April 13, 2023
    Applicant: Sonrai Securty Inc.
    Inventors: Ben A. Wuest, William A. Bird, Brad J. Peters, Dasharath P. Chavda, Gregory A. Davis
  • Patent number: 11570231
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Patent number: 11134085
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. The data model also supports a cloud “least privilege and access” framework. Least privilege is a set of minimum permissions that are associated to a given identity; least access is a minimal set of persons that need to have access to given piece data. The framework maps an identity to one or more actions collected in cloud audit logs, and dynamically-build a compete view of an identity's effective permissions. The resulting least privilege and access policies are then applied natively to a given cloud environment to manage access.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben A. Wuest, William A. Bird, Brad J. Peters, Dasharath P. Chavda, Gregory A. Davis
  • Patent number: 11100046
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for selectively storing network traffic data are described. Network traffic is stored according to a first packet filtering policy in a first repository. The stored network traffic is scanned in the first repository according to a second packet filtering policy to identify a subset of network traffic for archiving. The identified subset of network traffic identified by the second packet filtering policy are forensically interesting packets concerning a security issue. The identified subset of network traffic from the first repository is then stored in a second repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Russell L Couturier, Vijay Dheap, Derek T Lohnes, Ben A Wuest
  • Publication number: 20200358842
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2020
    Publication date: November 12, 2020
    Applicant: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Publication number: 20200336489
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. The data model also supports a cloud “least privilege and access” framework. Least privilege is a set of minimum permissions that are associated to a given identity; least access is a minimal set of persons that need to have access to given piece data. The framework maps an identity to one or more actions collected in cloud audit logs, and dynamically-build a compete view of an identity's effective permissions. The resulting least privilege and access policies are then applied natively to a given cloud environment to manage access.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Publication date: October 22, 2020
    Applicant: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben A. Wuest, William A. Bird, Brad J. Peters, Dasharath P. Chavda, Gregory A. Davis
  • Patent number: 10728307
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Patent number: 10693796
    Abstract: Embodiments provide a system and method for network tracking. By using packet capture applications having a flow identifier and a time stamper, one or more raw packets from one or more packet flows intercepted from a network can be tagged with a unique identifier and timestamp that can later be used to aggregate packet flows that have been analyzed by one or more capture applications. The unique identifier can relate to the network interface of the particular capture application and can also have an increasing value, where the increase in value can be monotonic. Later capture applications, while capable of generating secondary timestamps, can disregard those secondary timestamps for the primary timestamp of the first capture application in order to remove complications arising from latency issues.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation, Napatech A/S
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Russell Couturier, Vijay Dheap, Patrick V. Johnstone, Ben A. Wuest, Alex Omø Agerholm
  • Publication number: 20200112602
    Abstract: A network-accessible service provides an enterprise with a view of all identity and data activity in the enterprise's cloud accounts. The service enables distinct cloud provider management models to be normalized with centralized analytics and views across large numbers of cloud accounts. The service enables an enterprise to model all activity and relationships across cloud vendors, accounts and third party stores. Display views of this information preferably can pivot on cloud provider, country, cloud accounts, application or data store. Using a domain-specific query language, the system enables rapid interrogation of a complete and centralized data model of all data and identity relationships. User reports may be generated showing all privileges and data to which a particular identity has access. Similarly, data reports shown all entities having access to an asset can be generated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2019
    Publication date: April 9, 2020
    Applicant: Sonrai Security Inc.
    Inventors: Ben Wuest, William Bird, Brad Peters, Albert Lockett
  • Publication number: 20190109794
    Abstract: Embodiments provide a system and method for network tracking. By using packet capture applications having a flow identifier and a time stamper, one or more raw packets from one or more packet flows intercepted from a network can be tagged with a unique identifier and timestamp that can later be used to aggregate packet flows that have been analyzed by one or more capture applications. The unique identifier can relate to the network interface of the particular capture application and can also have an increasing value, where the increase in value can be monotonic. Later capture applications, while capable of generating secondary timestamps, can disregard those secondary timestamps for the primary timestamp of the first capture application in order to remove complications arising from latency issues.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2018
    Publication date: April 11, 2019
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Russell Couturier, Vijay Dheap, Patrick V. Johnstone, Ben A. Wuest, Alex Omø Agerholm
  • Patent number: 10250511
    Abstract: Embodiments provide a system and method for network tracking. By using packet capture applications having a flow identifier and a time stamper, one or more raw packets from one or more packet flows intercepted from a network can be tagged with a unique identifier and timestamp that can later be used to aggregate packet flows that have been analyzed by one or more capture applications. The unique identifier can relate to the network interface of the particular capture application and can also have an increasing value, where the increase in value can be monotonic. Later capture applications, while capable of generating secondary timestamps, can disregard those secondary timestamps for the primary timestamp of the first capture application in order to remove complications arising from latency issues.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Russell Couturier, Vijay Dheap, Patrick V. Johnstone, Ben A. Wuest, Alex Omø Agerholm
  • Publication number: 20170359264
    Abstract: Embodiments provide a system and method for network tracking. By using packet capture applications having a flow identifier and a time stamper, one or more raw packets from one or more packet flows intercepted from a network can be tagged with a unique identifier and timestamp that can later be used to aggregate packet flows that have been analyzed by one or more capture applications. The unique identifier can relate to the network interface of the particular capture application and can also have an increasing value, where the increase in value can be monotonic. Later capture applications, while capable of generating secondary timestamps, can disregard those secondary timestamps for the primary timestamp of the first capture application in order to remove complications arising from latency issues.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: WILLIAM A. BIRD, Russell Couturier, Vijay Dheap, Patrick V. Johnstone, Ben A. Wuest, Alex Omø Agerholm
  • Publication number: 20170214718
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for selectively storing network traffic data are described. Network traffic is stored according to a first packet filtering policy in a first repository. The stored network traffic is scanned in the first repository according to a second packet filtering policy to identify a subset of network traffic for archiving. The identified subset of network traffic identified by the second packet filtering policy are forensically interesting packets concerning a security issue. The identified subset of network traffic from the first repository is then stored in a second repository.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2016
    Publication date: July 27, 2017
    Inventors: Russell L. Couterier, Vijay Dheap, Derek T. Lohnes, Ben A. Wuest
  • Patent number: 9607144
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for identifying risk within an information technology (IT) environment, comprising: analyzing characteristics of a user accessing a system within an IT environment; associating a risk profile with the user based upon the characteristics of the user; determining when the user accesses a system within the IT environment; maintaining a user risk profile record of all systems within the IT environment accessed by the user, the user risk profile record continuing to be associated with the system after access by the user ceases; and, identifying a risk level for all systems within the IT environment based upon the user risk profile record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Rory F. Bray, Jason D. Keirstead, Dwight E. Spencer, Ben A. Wuest
  • Patent number: 9600659
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for identifying risk within an information technology (IT) environment, comprising: analyzing characteristics of a user accessing a system within an IT environment; associating a risk profile with the user based upon the characteristics of the user; determining when the user accesses a system within the IT environment; maintaining a user risk profile record of all systems within the IT environment accessed by the user, the user risk profile record continuing to be associated with the system after access by the user ceases; and, identifying a risk level for all systems within the IT environment based upon the user risk profile record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Rory F. Bray, Jason D. Keirstead, Dwight E. Spencer, Ben A. Wuest
  • Patent number: 9497217
    Abstract: According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for detecting malware in a network stream to at least one host computer is provided. The method may include initializing a browser profile corresponding with a first website having a first website source and a first plurality of content features. The method may include recording the first plurality of content features and a trusted source based on the first website source. The method may include scanning the network stream for a second content feature within a second plurality of content features associated with a second website. The method may include determining if the second content feature matches a first content feature. The method may include determining if the second plurality of content features is consistent with the first plurality of content features. The method may include determining if a second website source matches the trusted source. The method may include generating an alert.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Rory F. Bray, Jody D. Brownell, Ben A. Wuest
  • Patent number: 9473531
    Abstract: According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for detecting malware in a network stream to at least one host computer is provided. The method may include initializing a browser profile corresponding with a first website having a first website source and a first plurality of content features. The method may include recording the first plurality of content features and a trusted source based on the first website source. The method may include scanning the network stream for a second content feature within a second plurality of content features associated with a second website. The method may include determining if the second content feature matches a first content feature. The method may include determining if the second plurality of content features is consistent with the first plurality of content features. The method may include determining if a second website source matches the trusted source. The method may include generating an alert.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William A. Bird, Rory F. Bray, Jody D. Brownell, Ben A. Wuest