Patents Assigned to CENTRIPETAL NETWORKS, INC.
  • Patent number: 11582191
    Abstract: An enterprise organization may operate a central network and one or more remote networks, each comprising a plurality of computing devices. For protection against malicious actors, the central network may be configured to filter network traffic associated with the computing devices based on identified threats. Traffic corresponding to computing devices connected to the remote network may be tunneled to the central network for filtering by the central network. A tunnel gateway device, associated with the remote network, may efficiently identify which communications are associated with Internet threats, and tunnel such identified traffic to the central network, where actions may be taken to protect the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11574047
    Abstract: A cyber threat intelligence (CTI) gateway device may receive rules for filtering TCP/IP packet communications events that are configured to cause the CTI gateway device to identify communications corresponding to indicators, signatures, and behavioral patterns of network threats. The CTI gateway device may receive packets that compose endpoint-to-endpoint communication events and, for each event, may determine that the event corresponds to criteria specified by a filtering rule. The criteria may correspond to one or more of the network threat indicators, signatures, and behavioral patterns. The CTI gateway may create a log of the threat event and forward the threat event log to a task queue managed by a cyberanalysis workflow application. Human cyberanalysts use the cyberanalysis workflow application to service the task queue by removing the task at the front of the queue, investigating the threat event, and deciding whether the event is a reportable finding that should be reported to the proper authorities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Jess Parnell, Zachary Ehnerd
  • Patent number: 11570138
    Abstract: Network devices that are inserted inline into network links and process in-transit packets may significantly improve their packet-throughput performance by not assigning L3 IP addresses and L2 MAC addresses to their network interfaces and thereby process packets through a logical fast path that bypasses the slow path through the operating system kernel. When virtualizing such Bump-In-The-Wire (BITW) devices for deployment into clouds, the network interfaces must have L3 IP and L2 MAC addresses assigned to them. Thus, packets are processed through the slow path of a virtual BITW device, significantly reducing the performance. By adding new logic to the virtual BITW device and/or configuring proxies, addresses, subnets, and/or routing tables, a virtual BITW device can process packets through the fast path and potentially improve performance accordingly. For example, the virtual BITW device may be configured to enforce a virtual path (comprising the fast path) through the virtual BITW device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Goodwin, Paul Sprague, Peter Geremia, Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11563758
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Patent number: 11552970
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11539664
    Abstract: A packet-filtering network appliance such as a threat intelligence gateway (TIG) protects TCP/IP networks from Internet threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies are composed of packet filtering rules derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI). Logs of rule-matching packets and their associated flows are sent to cyberanalysis applications located at security operations centers (SOCs) and operated by cyberanalysts. Some cyber threats/attacks, or incidents, are composed of many different flows occurring at a very high rate, which generates a flood of logs that may overwhelm computer, storage, network, and cyberanalysis resources, thereby compromising cyber defenses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: John Fenton, Peter Geremia, Richard Goodwin, Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jess Parnell, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11539665
    Abstract: In some variations, first and second rule sets may be received by a network protection device. The first and second rule sets may be preprocessed. The network protection device may be configured to process packets in accordance with the first rule set. Packets may be received by the network protection device. A first portion of the packets may be processed in accordance with the first rule set. The network protection device may be reconfigured to process packets in accordance with the second rule set. A second portion of the packets may be processed in accordance with the second rule set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Steven Rogers, Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11516241
    Abstract: A packet-filtering device may receive packet-filtering rules configured to cause the packet-filtering device to identify packets corresponding to network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may receive packets and, for each packet, may determine that the packet corresponds to criteria specified by a packet-filtering rule. The criteria may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may apply an operator specified by the packet-filtering rule. The operator may be configured to cause the packet-filtering device to either prevent the packet from continuing toward its destination or allow the packet to continue toward its destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Keith A. George, Peter P. Geremia, Pierre Mallett, III, Sean Moore, Robert T. Perry, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11502996
    Abstract: In some variations, first and second rule sets may be received by a network protection device. The first and second rule sets may be preprocessed. The network protection device may be configured to process packets in accordance with the first rule set. Packets may be received by the network protection device. A first portion of the packets may be processed in accordance with the first rule set. The network protection device may be reconfigured to process packets in accordance with the second rule set. A second portion of the packets may be processed in accordance with the second rule set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Steven Rogers, Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11496497
    Abstract: Packets may be received by a packet security gateway. Responsive to a determination that an overload condition has occurred in one or more networks associated with the packet security gateway, a first group of packet filtering rules may be applied to at least some of the packets. Applying the first group of packet filtering rules may include allowing at least a first portion of the packets to continue toward their respective destinations. Responsive to a determination that the overload condition has been mitigated, a second group of packet filtering rules may be applied to at least some of the packets. Applying the second group of packet filtering rules may include allowing at least a second portion of the packets to continue toward their respective destinations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Steven Rogers, John Daniel Scoggins, Sr.
  • Patent number: 11496500
    Abstract: A packet-filtering device may receive packet-filtering rules configured to cause the packet-filtering device to identify packets corresponding to network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may receive packets and, for each packet, may determine that the packet corresponds to criteria specified by a packet-filtering rule. The criteria may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may apply an operator specified by the packet-filtering rule. The operator may be configured to cause the packet-filtering device to either prevent the packet from continuing toward its destination or allow the packet to continue toward its destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Keith A. George, Peter P. Geremia, Pierre Mallett, III, Sean Moore, Robert T. Perry, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11477224
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Patent number: 11477237
    Abstract: Methods and systems for protecting a secured network are presented. For example, one or more packet security gateways may be associated with a security policy management server. At each packet security gateway, a dynamic security policy may be received from the security policy management server, packets associated with a network protected by the packet security gateway may be received, and at least one of multiple packet transformation functions specified by the dynamic security policy may be performed on the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Rogers, Sean Moore, David K. Ahn, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11463405
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system described herein may be configured to filter packets with encrypted hostnames in accordance with one or packet-filtering rules. The packet-filtering system may resolve a plaintext hostname from ciphertext comprising an encrypted Server Name Indication (eSNI) value. The packet-filtering system may resolve the plaintext hostname using a plurality of techniques. Once the plaintext hostname is resolved, the packet-filtering system may then use the plaintext hostname to determine whether the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators. If the packet-filtering system determines that the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators, the packet-filtering system may apply a packet filtering operation associated with the packet-filtering rules to the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11444963
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11438351
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11418487
    Abstract: Aspects of this disclosure relate to filtering network data transfers. In some variations, multiple packets may be received. A determination may be made that a portion of the packets have packet header field values corresponding to a packet filtering rule. Responsive to such a determination, an operator specified by the packet filtering rule may be applied to the portion of packets having the packet header field values corresponding to the packet filtering rule. A further determination may be made that one or more of the portion of the packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to one or more application header field criteria specified by the operator. Responsive to such a determination, at least one packet transformation function specified by the operator may be applied to the one or more of the portion of the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11374905
    Abstract: Enterprise users' mobile devices typically access the Internet without being protected by the enterprise's network security policy, which exposes the enterprise network to Internet-mediated attack by malicious actors. This is because the conventional approach to protecting the mobile devices and associated enterprise network is to tunnel all of the devices' Internet communications to the enterprise network, which is very inefficient since typically only a very small percentage of Internet communications originating from an enterprise's mobile devices are communicating with Internet hosts that are associated with threats. In the present disclosure, the mobile device efficiently identifies which communications are associated with Internet threats, and tunnels only such identified traffic to the enterprise network, where actions may be taken to protect the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11362996
    Abstract: A packet-filtering network appliance protects networks from threats by enforcing policies on in-transit packets crossing network boundaries. The policies are composed of packet filtering rules derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI). Logs of rule-matching packets and their flows are sent to cyberanalysis applications located at security operations centers (SOCs). Some cyber threats/attacks, or incidents, are composed of many different flows occurring at a very high rate, generating a flood of logs that may overwhelm computer, storage, network, and cyberanalysis resources, thereby compromising cyber defenses. The present disclosure describes incident logging that efficiently incorporates logs of many flows that comprise the incident, potentially reducing resource consumption while improving the informational/cyberanalytical value for cyberanalysis when compared to the component flow logs. Incident logging vs. flow logging can be automatically and adaptively switched on or off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: John Fenton, Peter Geremia, Richard Goodwin, Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jess Parnell, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11349854
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia