Abstract: A computer-readable storage medium has embedded thereon non-transient computer-readable code for controlling access to a protected computer network, by intercepting packets that are being exchanged between a computer system and the protected network, and then, for each intercepted packet, identifying the associated application that is running on the computer system, determining whether the application is trusted, for example according to a white list or according to a black list, and disposing of the packet accordingly.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods, devices, and media for enforcing network access control, the method including the steps of: extracting a packet signature from a packet (or packet fragment) received from a network; storing the packet signature and the packet in a buffer; computing a buffer signature using a per-endpoint secret key; determining whether the packet signature and the buffer signature are identical; and upon determining the packet signature and the buffer signature are identical, transmitting the packet to a protocol stack. Preferably, the step of extracting includes extracting the packet signature from a field (e.g. identification field) of a header of the packet. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: upon determining the packet signature and the buffer signature are not identical, discarding the packet. Methods for receiving a packet from a protocol stack, and transmitting the packet to a network are disclosed as well.

Abstract: To protect a user of a social network, the user's activity is monitored during a baseline monitoring period to determine a baseline activity record. If subsequently monitored activity of the user deviates sufficiently from the baseline activity record to indicate abuse (hijacking) of the user's account, the abuse is mitigated, for example by notifying the user of the abuse. Monitored activity includes posting links, updating statuses, sending messages, and changing a profile. Monitoring also includes logging times of the user activity. Monitoring anomalous profile changes does not need a baseline.

Abstract: Methods, devices, and media for intelligent NIC bonding and load-balancing including the steps of: providing a packet at an incoming-packet port of a gateway; attaching an incoming-port identification, associated with the incoming-packet port, to the packet; routing the packet to a processing core; passing the packet through a gateway processing; sending the packet, by the core, to the operating system of a host system; and routing the packet to an outgoing-packet port of the gateway based on the incoming-port identification. Preferably, the gateway processing includes security processing of the packets. Preferably, the step of routing the packet to the outgoing-packet port is based solely on the incoming-port identification. Preferably, an outgoing-port identification, associated with the outgoing-packet port, has an identical bond-index to the incoming-port identification.

Abstract: Methods including the steps of: upon sending an IP packet, obtaining, by a sender, a sender identity for a sender of the packet; securely tagging, by a sender, the packet with the sender identity, the packet having a plurality of fixed-length fields concatenated into a single fixed-length virtual field shared between a cryptographic hash and an identity index for supporting multiple distinct identities residing on an IP endpoint; determining, by a receiver, the sender identity by extracting it from the packet; checking, by the receiver, the packet to ensure the packet has been appropriately tagged; and enforcing a security policy, by the receiver, according to the sender identity. Preferably, the step of obtaining includes: accessing, by the sender, a server for obtaining the sender identity; and associating, by the server, the sender identity with the endpoint. Most preferably, the associating is performed using a prefix code for encoding the identities.

Abstract: A method for protecting data communications using a multiple processor device in which multiple processors are operatively connected by a transport mechanism for sharing data. One or more of the processors is programmed as a dispatcher and other processors are programmed with processes. Each of the processes enforce an identical security policy and/or perform an identical or specialized security function. Data streams are transferred respectively from the dispatcher to the processes through the transport mechanism. Control information is transmitted through the transport mechanism from one or more processes to the dispatcher. The control information specifies balancing load of the data streams between the processes. The dispatcher balances load based on the control information.

Abstract: A method and system is provided for a scalable clustered system. The method and system may handle asynchronous traffic as well as session backup. In the method and system, a home cluster member having ownership of a local session predicts designation of a an other cluster member to receive a packet associated with the local session and sends appropriate state information or forwarding instruction to the other network member.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods for user profiling for detecting insider threats including the steps of: upon a client application sending a request for a link, extracting at least one search keyword from a search session associated with the request; classifying the link into at least one classification; determining whether at least one classification is a monitored classification; capturing search elements of search sessions associated with the monitored classification; acquiring usage data from the search elements to create a user profile associated with a user's search behavior; and performing a statistical analysis, on a search frequency for the monitored classification, on user profiles associated with many users.

Abstract: Three heuristic layers are used to determine whether suspicious code received at a port of a data processing device is malware. First, static analysis is applied to the suspicious code. If the suspicious code passes the static analysis, dissembling analysis is applied to the suspicious code. Preferably, if the suspicious code passes the dissembling analysis, dynamic analysis is applied to the suspicious code.

Abstract: The present invention discloses methods for document-to-template matching for data-leak prevention (DLP), the methods including the steps of: providing a document as a stream of characters; splitting the stream into a plurality of serialized data lines; calculating a hash value for each serialized data line; checking for each hash value in a hash map of a template set; determining a similarity match to a particular template based on a predefined threshold of template hash values, of the template set, being found in the stream; and based on the similarity match, executing a DLP security policy for the document. Preferably, the template set is extracted from documents manually prepared by a security administrator. Preferably, each template in the template set is deduced automatically from a plurality of documents.

Abstract: The present invention discloses methods, media, and gateways for protecting against cookie-poisoning attacks in networked-communication applications. Methods include the steps of: creating a protected gateway cookie, generated by a gateway, for a server cookie, generated by a server, wherein the server cookie is received by the gateway in an HTTP response message; and validating, by the gateway, that a client cookie from a client request has a corresponding gateway cookie with expected field values. Preferably, the field values include at least one field value selected from the group consisting of: a name, a hash value computed over the server cookie, a hash-function index, a timestamp, a nonce, a hash value computed over newly-generated values, a path, a domain, an expiration, and an HTTP-only value. Preferably, the gateway cookie is signed with a secret key. Most preferably, the secret key is generated by a secret seed.

Abstract: Disclosed are devices and methods for providing network access control utilizing traffic-regulation hardware, the device including: at least one client-side port for operationally connecting to a client system; at least one network-side port for operationally connecting to a network; a logic module for regulating network traffic, based on device-related data, between the ports, the logic module including: a memory unit for storing and loading the device-related data; and a CPU for processing the device-related data; and at least one relay, between at least one respective client-side port and at least one respective network-side port, configured to open upon receiving a respective network-access-denial command from the logic module. Preferably, the logic module is configured to maintain an open-relay line-rate when at least one relay is open, and to maintain a closed-relay line-rate when at least one relay is closed.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and media for inspecting security certificates. Methods include the steps of: scanning, by a network security device, messages of a security protocol between a server and a client system; detecting the messages having a security certificate; detecting suspicious security certificates from the messages; and aborting particular sessions of the security protocol associated with the suspicious certificates. Preferably, the step of scanning is performed only on messages of server certificate records. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: sending an invalid-certificate notice to the server and the client system. Preferably, the step of detecting the suspicious certificates includes detecting a use of an incorrectly-generated private key for the certificates. Preferably, the step of detecting the suspicious certificates includes detecting an unavailability of revocation information for the certificates.

Abstract: A data leak prevention application that categorizes documents by data type is provided, a data type being a sensitivity classification of a document based on what data the document contains. A scripting language processing engine is embedded into the data leak prevention application, the scripting language forming part of the application as hard code. A user configures interaction of the scripting language processing engine with the application. The configuring may include modifying or adding code or setting criteria for when code portions of the scripting language processing engine activates. The scripting language processing engine is activated to enhance an accuracy of an existing data type or so as to detect a new data type. Upon enhancing the accuracy of the data type, documents may be re-categorized.

Abstract: Methods, for automatically generating natural-language news items from log files, including the steps of: gathering at least one data record; filtering at least one data record according to at least one rule to produce at least one filtered data set; aggregating at least one filtered data set; analyzing at least one filtered data set for at least one statistical trend; and automatically generating a news item based on at least one statistical trend. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: customizing the news item based on a relative importance of at least one statistical trend. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: performing a drill-down analysis on at least one statistical trend. Most preferably, the method further includes the step of: enriching the news item based on the drill-down analysis. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: embedding at least one graphical element into the news item.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods for automatic categorization of internal and external communication, the method including the steps of: defining groups of entities that transmit data; monitoring data flow of the groups; extracting the data, from the data flow, for learning traffic-flow characteristics of the groups; classifying the data into group flows; upon the data being transmitted, checking the data to determine whether the data is designated as group-internal; and blocking data traffic for data that is group-internal. Preferably, the step of monitoring includes assigning data weights to the data using Bayesian methods. Most preferably, the step of classifying includes classifying the data using Bayesian methods for evaluating the data weights. Preferably, the step of blocking includes blocking data traffic between members of two or more groups. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: enabling an authorized entity to unblock the data traffic.

Abstract: Methods, devices, and media for intelligent NIC bonding and load-balancing including the steps of: providing a packet at an incoming-packet port of a gateway; attaching an incoming-port identification, associated with the incoming-packet port, to the packet; routing the packet to a processing core; passing the packet through a gateway processing; sending the packet, by the core, to the operating system of a host system; and routing the packet to an outgoing-packet port of the gateway based on the incoming-port identification. Preferably, the gateway processing includes security processing of the packets. Preferably, the step of routing the packet to the outgoing-packet port is based solely on the incoming-port identification. Preferably, an outgoing-port identification, associated with the outgoing-packet port, has an identical bond-index to the incoming-port identification.

Abstract: A method for detecting malicious code in a stream of data traffic input (400) to a gateway in a data network by monitoring for suspicious data in the stream of data traffic (407). Upon detecting the suspicious data, an attempt is made to disassemble the suspicious data (403) and a treat weight is assigned for each instruction. The attempt to disassemble is initiated at initial instructions each with a different offset within the suspicious portion of data. The threat weights are accumulated respectively for each branch option in the disassembled code (403), producing respectively an accumulated threat weight for each branch option. When the accumulated threat weight exceeds a previously defined threshold level, an alert is generated and/or traffic is blocked from the source of the malicious code.

Abstract: The present invention discloses methods and media for hooking applications to monitor and prevent execution of security-sensitive operations, the method including the steps of: reading at least one configuration parameter list from a configuration module; hooking, by a hooking engine, a hooking point in an application, wherein the hooking point is defined in the configuration module; calling, by the application, the hooking point during operation of the application; matching at least one hooking parameter in the hooking point to at least one configuration parameter in at least one configuration parameter list; and upon detecting a match between the hooking parameter and at least one configuration parameter, performing at least one configuration-defined action. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: updating a state of the hooking engine. Preferably, the hooking engine is operative to prevent malicious operations by obfuscated code.

Abstract: A method for load sharing and high availability in a cluster of computers. The cluster includes a first computer and a second computer which perform a task An active application runs in the first computer and a standby application is installed in the second computer. The active application and the standby application are included in an application group. A first plurality of applications is installed in the first computer; the first plurality includes the running active application. The active application performs the task and stores in memory of the first computer state parameters and a policy. A synchronized copy of the state parameters and the policy pertaining to the task is maintained by storing in memory of the second computer. Preferably, the cluster is in a security gateway between data networks and performs a task related to security of one or more of the networks.