Patents by Inventor Joel R. Spurlock

Joel R. Spurlock 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).

  • Publication number: 20200067960
    Abstract: A collection of techniques is disclosed to allow for the detection of malware that leverages pattern recognition and machine learning to effectively provide “content-less” malware detection, i.e., detecting a process as being an ‘anomaly’ not based on its particular content, but instead based on comparisons of its behavior to known (and characterized) ‘trusted’ application behaviors, i.e., the trusted applications' “phenotypes” and/or the phenotypes of known malware applications. By analyzing the patterns of normal behavior performed by trusted applications as well as malware applications, one can build a set of sophisticated, content-agnostic behavioral models (i.e.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Cedric Cochin, John D. Teddy, Ofir Arkin, James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock, Carl Woodward
  • Patent number: 10476899
    Abstract: A collection of techniques is disclosed to allow for the detection of malware that leverages pattern recognition and machine learning to effectively provide “content-less” malware detection, i.e., detecting a process as being an ‘anomaly’ not based on its particular content, but instead based on comparisons of its behavior to known (and characterized) ‘trusted’ application behaviors, i.e., the trusted applications' “phenotypes” and/or the phenotypes of known malware applications. By analyzing the patterns of normal behavior performed by trusted applications as well as malware applications, one can build a set of sophisticated, content-agnostic behavioral models (i.e.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Cedric Cochin, John D. Teddy, Ofir Arkin, James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock, Carl Woodward
  • Publication number: 20190155752
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to receive a request from a process to access data is a system, determine if the data is in a virtualized protected area of memory in the system, and allow access to the data if the data is in the virtualized protected area of memory and the process is a trusted process. The electronic device can also be configured to determine if new data should be protected, store the new data in the virtualized protected area of memory in the system if the new data should be protected, and store the new data in an unprotected area of memory in the system if the new data should not be protected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2018
    Publication date: May 23, 2019
    Applicant: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, Zheng Zhang, Aditya Kapoor, Jonathan L. Edwards, Khai N. Pham
  • Patent number: 10162767
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to receive a request from a process to access data is a system, determine if the data is in a virtualized protected area of memory in the system, and allow access to the data if the data is in the virtualized protected area of memory and the process is a trusted process. The electronic device can also be configured to determine if new data should be protected, store the new data in the virtualized protected area of memory in the system if the new data should be protected, and store the new data in an unprotected area of memory in the system if the new data should not be protected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, Zheng Zhang, Aditya Kapoor, Jonathan L. Edwards, Khai N. Pham
  • Patent number: 10129291
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to monitor activities of objects in a system, compare the monitored activities to metadata for the system, and identify low prevalence outliers to detect potentially malicious activity. The monitored activities can include an analysis of metadata of the objects in the system to identify polymorphic threats, an object reuse analysis of the system to detect an object reusing metadata from another object, and a filename analysis of the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Patent number: 10083296
    Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a computing apparatus having one or more logic elements providing a security agent operable for: detecting that a first process has launch a second process and placed the second process in a suspended state; detecting that the first process has modified or attempted to modify the second process; classifying the modification as potentially malicious; and taking a remedial action. There is also disclosed one or more computer-readable storage mediums having stored thereon executable instructions for providing the security agent, and a computer-executable method of providing the security agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Aditya Kapoor, Joel R. Spurlock, Jonathan L. Edwards
  • Patent number: 10083295
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to acquire a plurality of reputations related to an object and combine the plurality of reputations to create a total reputation for the object. The object can include a plurality of sub-objects and each of the plurality of reputations can correspond to one of the sub-objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, John D. Teddy
  • Patent number: 10050980
    Abstract: There is disclosed in an example a computing apparatus configured to operate as an enterprise threat intelligence server, and including: a network interface configured to communicatively couple to a network; and one or more logic elements providing a reputation engine, operable for: receiving a first uniform resource locator (URL) identifier; determining that a first URL identified by the first URL identifier has an unknown enterprise reputation; and establishing a baseline reputation for the URL. There is further disclosed a method of providing the reputation engine, and one or more computer-readable mediums having stored thereon executable instructions for providing the reputation engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock, Ramnath Venugopalan
  • Patent number: 10043003
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to acquire a plurality of reputations related to an object and combine the plurality of reputations to create a total reputation for the object. The object can include a plurality of sub-objects and each of the plurality of reputations can correspond to one of the sub-objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, John D. Teddy
  • Publication number: 20180096260
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are cloud-based machine learning systems and methods for monitoring networked devices to identify and classify characteristics, to infer typical or atypical behavior and assign reputation profiles across various networked devices, and to make remediation recommendations. In some embodiments, a cloud-based machine learning system may learn the typical operation and interfacing of a plurality of reputable devices that are known to be free from malicious software and other threats. In some embodiments, a cloud-based machine learning system may learn the typical operation and interfacing of a device, and may identify atypical operations or interfaces associated with that device by comparing the operations and interfaces to those of a plurality of networked devices or to those of a defined standard reference device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Publication date: April 5, 2018
    Applicant: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Vincent J. Zimmer, Joel R. Spurlock, Ramnath Venugopalan, Ned M. Smith, Igor G. Muttik, Rajesh Poornachandran
  • Patent number: 9906537
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are provided for conditionally performing an action based on an attribute. In use, at least one attribute associated with an object is determined. Additionally, an event associated with the object is identified. Further, at least one action is conditionally performed in association with the event, based on the at least one attribute.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2018
    Assignee: McAfee, LLC
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, Gregory William Dalcher
  • Publication number: 20180018458
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to allow for the mitigation of ransomware. For example, the system can determine that an application begins to execute, determine that the application attempts to modify a file, determine a file type for the file, and create a security event if the application is not authorized to modify the file type. In another example, the system determines an entropy value between the file and the attempted modification of the file, and create a security event if the entropy value satisfies a threshold or determine a system entropy value that includes a rate at which other files on the system are being modified by the application, and create a security event if the system entropy value satisfies a threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2016
    Publication date: January 18, 2018
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Craig D. Schmugar, Cedric Cochin, Andrew Furtak, Adam James Carrivick, Yury Bulygin, John J. Loucaides, Oleksander Bazhaniuk, Christiaan Beek, Carl D. Woodward, Ronald Gallella, Gregory Michael Heitzmann, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Patent number: 9769186
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to monitor network traffic to and from a device, compare the monitored network traffic to characteristics of the device to determine if the monitored traffic is outside the characteristics of the device, and take remedial action if the monitored traffic is outside the characteristics of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Teddy, Ramnath Venugopalan, Cedric Cochin, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Patent number: 9614866
    Abstract: A system, method and computer program product are provided for sending information extracted from a potentially unwanted data sample to generate a signature. In use, information is extracted from a portion of a sample of potentially unwanted data. Further, the information is sent to generate a signature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Igor Muttik, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Publication number: 20170093897
    Abstract: A collection of techniques is disclosed to allow for the detection of malware that leverages pattern recognition and machine learning to effectively provide “content-less” malware detection, i.e., detecting a process as being an ‘anomaly’ not based on its particular content, but instead based on comparisons of its behavior to known (and characterized) ‘trusted’ application behaviors, i.e., the trusted applications' “phenotypes” and/or the phenotypes of known malware applications. By analyzing the patterns of normal behavior performed by trusted applications as well as malware applications, one can build a set of sophisticated, content-agnostic behavioral models (i.e.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2015
    Publication date: March 30, 2017
    Inventors: Cedric Cochin, John D. Teddy, Ofir Arkin, James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock, Carl Woodward
  • Publication number: 20160378685
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to receive a request from a process to access data is a system, determine if the data is in a virtualized protected area of memory in the system, and allow access to the data if the data is in the virtualized protected area of memory and the process is a trusted process. The electronic device can also be configured to determine if new data should be protected, store the new data in the virtualized protected area of memory in the system if the new data should be protected, and store the new data in an unprotected area of memory in the system if the new data should not be protected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 29, 2016
    Applicant: MCAFEE, INC.
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, Zheng Zhang, Aditya Kapoor, Jonathan L. Edwards, Khai N. Pham
  • Publication number: 20160381041
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to monitor activities of objects in a system, compare the monitored activities to metadata for the system, and identify low prevalence outliers to detect potentially malicious activity. The monitored activities can include an analysis of metadata of the objects in the system to identify polymorphic threats, an object reuse analysis of the system to detect an object reusing metadata from another object, and a filename analysis of the system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 29, 2016
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: James Bean, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Publication number: 20160381051
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to monitor a process, determine if the process is parsing to look for one or more system functions, and flag the process if the process is parsing to look for one or more system system functions. In an example, the process can be determined to be parsing to look for one or more system functions if the process parses portable executable headers to find and interpret dynamic link library tables. In another example, the process can be determined to be parsing to look for one or more system functions if the process calls GetProcAddress.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 29, 2016
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan L. Edwards, Joel R. Spurlock
  • Publication number: 20160378979
    Abstract: In an example, there is disclosed a computing apparatus having one or more logic elements providing a security agent operable for: detecting that a first process has launch a second process and placed the second process in a suspended state; detecting that the first process has modified or attempted to modify the second process; classifying the modification as potentially malicious; and taking a remedial action. There is also disclosed one or more computer-readable storage mediums having stored thereon executable instructions for providing the security agent, and a computer-executable method of providing the security agent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 29, 2016
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Aditya Kapoor, Joel R. Spurlock, Jonathan L. Edwards
  • Publication number: 20160378983
    Abstract: Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to analyze data related to a digital certificate and assign a reputation to the digital certificate, where the reputation includes an indication if the data is proper. The analysis of the data can include determining if code signing for the digital certificate matches binary code for the digital certificate, if the digital certificate has been grafted to the data by modifying a portable executable file header, or the digital certificate is the same as another trusted digital certificate associated with different data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 29, 2016
    Applicant: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel R. Spurlock, Ramnath Venugopalan