Patents by Inventor Neil Ian Readshaw

Neil Ian Readshaw 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: 10432666
    Abstract: A method of policy management in a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system uses a policy model that associates a user with one or more DLP endpoints. When an endpoint is added to the system, a set of policies for that endpoint are determined using an identity of the user that is associated with the endpoint and a list of roles or groups for that user. At policy distribution time, the method determines a set of endpoints to which the policy is to be distributed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: Sailpoint Technology Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Neil Ian Readshaw, Jayashree Ramanathan, Gavin George Bray
  • Patent number: 9727733
    Abstract: A security policy management solution (such as a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system) is augmented to enable a user to model and visualize how changes in a security policy may impact (positively or negatively) the effectiveness of a policy configuration as well as the risk associated with its deployment. This technique enables a user (e.g., a security policy administrator) to evolve enterprise information technology (IT) security policies and, in particular, to generate and display “what-if” scenarios by which the user can determine trade-offs between, on the one hand, the effectiveness of a proposed change to a policy, and on the other hand, the risk associated with the proposed change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20160226918
    Abstract: A method of policy management in a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system uses a policy model that associates a user with one or more DLP endpoints. When an endpoint is added to the system, a set of policies for that endpoint are determined using an identity of the user that is associated with the endpoint and a list of roles or groups for that user. At policy distribution time, the method determines a set of endpoints to which the policy is to be distributed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2016
    Publication date: August 4, 2016
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Neil Ian Readshaw, Jayashree Ramanathan, Gavin George Bray
  • Patent number: 9311495
    Abstract: A method of policy management in a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) system uses a policy model that associates a user with one or more DLP endpoints. When an endpoint is added to the system, a set of policies for that endpoint are determined using an identity of the user that is associated with the endpoint and a list of roles or groups for that user. At policy distribution time, the method determines a set of endpoints to which the policy is to be distributed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Neil Ian Readshaw, Jayashree Ramanathan, Gavin George Bray
  • Patent number: 9203922
    Abstract: An intermediary (such as a web reverse proxy), which is located between a web browser and one or more backend applications, manages cookies that are provided by the backend applications and returned to the web browser during a user session. When a session sign-off event is initiated in the reverse proxy, HTTP “Set-Cookie” headers are sent back to the web browser to destroy the cookies (in the browser) that represent sessions with the one or more backend application(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Scott Anthony Exton, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Patent number: 9172694
    Abstract: An approach is provided to access resources at legacy systems. In this approach, a resource request destined to a legacy system is receiving from a requestor with the resource request including an access token and being on behalf of a resource owner. A validation process is performed on the access token. If the access token is valid, the approach identifies the resource owner and one or more legacy access tokens used to access the legacy system. Another request is formed with the new request including the legacy access tokens. The new request is transmitted to the legacy system and a response is received back from the legacy system. The response received from the legacy system is transmitted back to the requestor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Neil Ian Readshaw, Stephen Viselli, Shane Bradley Weeden
  • Patent number: 8935337
    Abstract: A computer implemented method, a tangible computer medium, and a data processing system proactively share current and upcoming schedule information. When the data processing system detects an outgoing e-mail from an e-mail client; a calendar entry is retrieved from a calendar application. The calendar entry indicates an availability of a user of the e-mail client. The calendar entry is attached to the outgoing e-mail, and the e-mail client then sends the outgoing e-mail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Patent number: 8769701
    Abstract: A method correlates audit information in a multi-tenant computing infrastructure. The method leverages a user's authentication to the infrastructure, such as via federated single sign-on (F-SSO) from an identity provider. Preferably, the user's tenant identifier in the environment is derived based on identity information obtained during the F-SSO exchange. This tenant identifier is propagated to one or more other components in the infrastructure that are accessed by the user. As audit event from multiple components in the computing infrastructure are generated, these audit events are annotated with the tenant identifier and stored in an audit repository. In response to a request to view the tenant's audit data, a collection of tenant-specific audit events are then retrieved from the audit repository and displayed in a single tenant view. This approach ensures that audit event information is not leaked inadvertently between tenants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Heather Maria Hinton, Neil Ian Readshaw, Katsumi Ohnishi, Naohiko Uramoto
  • Patent number: 8738692
    Abstract: An intermediary (such as a web reverse proxy), which is located between a web browser and one or more backend applications, manages cookies that are provided by the backend applications and returned to the web browser during a user session. The intermediary decides which cookies should be sent to the browser and which cookies should be stored therein. Preferably, this determination is made in an automated manner by examining the response for any cookie-dependent code (e.g., scripting) included in the response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Scott Anthony Exton, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Patent number: 8701163
    Abstract: An authorization method is implemented in an authorization engine external to an authorization server. The authorization server includes a cache. The external authorization engine comprises an authorization decision engine, and a policy analytics engine. The method begins when the authorization decision engine receives a request for an authorization decision. The request is generated (at the authorization server) following receipt of a client request for which an authorization decision is not then available at the server. The authorization decision engine determines an authorization policy to apply to the client request, applies the policy, and generates an authorization decision. The authorization decision is then provided to the policy analytics engine, which stores previously-generated potential cache directives that may be applied to the authorization decision. Preferably, the cache directives are generated in an off-line manner (e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher John Hockings, Simon Gilbert Canning, Scott Anthony Exton, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20140068732
    Abstract: A method correlates audit information in a multi-tenant computing infrastructure. The method leverages a user's authentication to the infrastructure, such as via federated single sign-on (F-SSO) from an identity provider. Preferably, the user's tenant identifier in the environment is derived based on identity information obtained during the F-SSO exchange. This tenant identifier is propagated to one or more other components in the infrastructure that are accessed by the user. As audit event from multiple components in the computing infrastructure are generated, these audit events are annotated with the tenant identifier and stored in an audit repository. In response to a request to view the tenant's audit data, a collection of tenant-specific audit events are then retrieved from the audit repository and displayed in a single tenant view. This approach ensures that audit event information is not leaked inadvertently between tenants.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Publication date: March 6, 2014
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Heather Maria Hinton, Neil Ian Readshaw, Katsumi Ohnishi, Naohiko Uramoto
  • Patent number: 8650249
    Abstract: An intermediary (such as a web reverse proxy), which is located between a web browser and one or more backend applications, manages cookies that are provided by the backend applications and returned to the web browser during a user session. The intermediary decides which cookies should be sent to the browser and which cookies should be stored therein. Preferably, this determination is made in an automated manner by examining the response for any cookie-dependent code (e.g., scripting) included in the response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Scott Anthony Exton, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Patent number: 8640195
    Abstract: Following development of an application, the application is deployed in a pre-production environment. A user role plays against that application, typically by performing one or more operations as a particular user in a particular group. As the operator role plays, access logs are written, and these logs are then analyzed and consolidated into a set of commands that drive a policy generator. The policy generator creates an optimized security policy that it then deploys to one or more enforcement points. In this manner, the framework enables automated configuration and deployment of one or more security policies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Christopher John Hockings, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Patent number: 8631459
    Abstract: A user provisioning system is extended to enable account reconciliation to occur in conjunction with a provisioning request. In response to a user provisioning request, a determination is made whether the user provisioning request is to be extended by including a reconciliation request. If so, the reconciliation request is piggy-backed on top of the provisioning request. This approach enables the reconciliation operation to be scoped to just the particular user account that is the subject to the provisioning operation, and it enables reconciliation to be carried out much more frequently as compared to the periodic, batch-oriented approach of prior techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2014
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20130318569
    Abstract: An approach is provided to access resources at legacy systems. In this approach, a resource request destined to a legacy system is receiving from a requestor with the resource request including an access token and being on behalf of a resource owner. A validation process is performed on the access token. If the access token is valid, the approach identifies the resource owner and one or more legacy access tokens used to access the legacy system. Another request is formed with the new request including the legacy access tokens. The new request is transmitted to the legacy system and a response is received back from the legacy system. The response received from the legacy system is transmitted back to the requestor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2012
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Neil Ian Readshaw, Stephen Viselli, Shane Bradley Weeden
  • Patent number: 8572691
    Abstract: A particular web service is selected based on conformation to a particular degree-of-trust. Information about available web services is requested. Responsive to requesting that information on the particular web service, a list of possible services is presented. The list of possible services includes a plurality of services, each of the plurality having a levels-of-trust assigned thereto. An acceptable web service having an acceptable degree-of-trust can then be selected from the list of possible services. Responsive to selecting the acceptable service from the list of possible services, the acceptable service can be invoked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20130254121
    Abstract: An approach is provided to gather items of usage data that pertain a number of instrumented software modules that are included in a software offering. The usage data is gathered from a number of customer installations of the software offering. Usage statistics are computed for the software modules and are used to determine support levels for the instrumented software modules. In another aspect, an approach is provided that detects execution of the software modules included in a software offering. Usage statistics are recorded in a local data store. One of the usage statistics is a module identifier that the software module that was executed. In addition, the usage statistics track the number of times each of the software modules was executed. The usage statistics are periodically transmitting a computer network to a software provider that develops and maintains the software offering.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher John Hockings, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20130205359
    Abstract: A user provisioning system is extended to enable account reconciliation to occur in conjunction with a provisioning request. In response to a user provisioning request, a determination is made whether the user provisioning request is to be extended by including a reconciliation request. If so, the reconciliation request is piggy-backed on top of the provisioning request. This approach enables the reconciliation operation to be scoped to just the particular user account that is the subject to the provisioning operation, and it enables reconciliation to be carried out much more frequently as compared to the periodic, batch-oriented approach of prior techniques.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Publication date: August 8, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20130179936
    Abstract: A security analytics system receives incident data (from an incident management system) and security policy information (from a security policy management system). The security analytics system evaluates these data sets against one another, preferably using a rules-based analysis engine. As a result, the security analytics system determines whether a particular security policy configuration (as established by the security policy management system) needs to be (or should be) changed, e.g., to reduce the number of incidents caused by a misconfiguration, to increase its effectiveness in some manner, or the like. As a result of the evaluation, the security analytics system may cause a policy to be updated automatically, notify an administrator of the need for the change (and the recommendation), or take some other action to evolve one or more security policies being enforced by the security policy management system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2012
    Publication date: July 11, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Christopher Young-Soo Choi, Neil Ian Readshaw
  • Publication number: 20130066943
    Abstract: An approach is provided in which a number of requests are received from a variety of clients over a computer network. The system uses a processor to calculate request priority values pertaining to the received requests. The calculation of the request priority values is based on one or more attributes that correspond to the respective requests. For example, the attributes could include network level attributes, session attributes, and application specific attributes. Each of the requests is assigned a request priority value. A request may receive the same request priority value as other requests. The requests are queued in a memory based on the request priority values that were assigned to the requests. The queued requests are then serviced in order of request priority so that queued requests assigned higher request priority values are processed before queued requests with lower request priority values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2011
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Simon Gilbert Canning, Scott Anthony Exton, Neil Ian Readshaw