Abstract: A “buoy” process is associated with another “real” (i.e., non-buoy) process or application. Priorities are arranged so that, in a resource crisis, the buoy process is preferentially killed before its parent. When, during a crisis, the buoy is killed, its death is a signal to the parent process that it may be time to shut down gracefully. In some embodiments, when the parent process starts up, it launches a buoy process as its child. When the buoy process dies, the operating system sends a signal to the parent process. This signal warns the parent of the resource crisis. In other embodiments, a separate “guardian” process notes the existence of a new “parent” process, launches a buoy process, and associates the buoy with the “parent” process. The operating system informs the guardian if the buoy process is killed, and the guardian in turn informs the associated parent.

Abstract: A wireless domain (602) sets a security policy for all mobile communication devices (606) within the domain by use of a system entry proxy server (604). A developer makes an application or code segment available at a developer station (600). The application is certified by a certificate defining a developer security setting. The user of the mobile communication device initiates a download of the application so that it can be installed onto the mobile communication device. The application is downloaded through the system entry proxy server which authenticates the application, then re-certifies it with a compact certificate including an operator defined security policy. In this way the operator can control which resources of the mobile communication device are accessed by all applications coming into the wireless domain.

Abstract: A new process for determining the administrator of a mobile communications device, e.g., a wireless cellular telephone, two-way pager, or laptop computer, connectable to a telecommunications network. The system and methods described provide processes for determining whether a Subscriber Entity Module (SIM) is present with a digital certificate for a domain of an administrator, e.g., a network operator, for designating administrative responsibilities in a mobile communications device. A mechanism is provided to designate administrative privileges to an entity by the owner of the mobile communications device.

Abstract: A computer-readable instruction stream is verified to determine that it does not violate the run-time security constraints of the execution environment (150). The computer-readable instruction stream after verification is stored in a storage device (140). The execution environment (150) retrieves the computer-readable instruction stream from the storage device (14) and verifies that the computer-readable instruction stream has not been modified. Upon verification, the computer-readable instruction stream is executed, while bypassing verification of the run-time security constraints of the execution environment (150).