Abstract: A support service application may process a request that contains a hyperlink. The hyperlink may be examined to determine a level of risk associated with accessing a resource referred to by the hyperlink. An execution environment for processing the hyperlink may be identified. The execution environment may comprise a virtual machine drawn from a pool of virtual machines. The resource may be retrieved by a browser process operating within the context of the virtual machine, and a safe version of the resource may be rendered and made available to customer support personnel using the support service application.

Abstract: A support service application may process a request that contains a hyperlink. The hyperlink may be examined to determine a level of risk associated with accessing a resource referred to by the hyperlink. An execution environment for processing the hyperlink may be identified. The execution environment may comprise a virtual machine drawn from a pool of virtual machines. The resource may be retrieved by a browser process operating within the context of the virtual machine, and a safe version of the resource may be rendered and made available to customer support personnel using the support service application.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for increasing the security of a database. A database is coupled with an access manager to limit certain applications that use the database to store user password information to queries that return at most one row. Additionally, returning a record may be limited to a case where the query includes the hash of the user name and password that is stored in the database. Other techniques may be implemented for other user account operations, such as password resets.