Patents by Inventor Kenneth D. Ray

Kenneth D. Ray 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: 11102238
    Abstract: An endpoint in an enterprise network is monitored, and when a potential trigger for a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is followed by an increase in network traffic from the endpoint to a high reputation network address, the endpoint is treated as a DDoS service bot and isolated from the network until remediation can be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Karl Ackerman, Mark David Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11095669
    Abstract: A data recorder stores endpoint activity on an ongoing basis as sequences of events that causally relate computer objects such as processes and files. When a security event is detected, an event graph may be generated based on these causal relationships among the computing objects. For a root cause analysis, the event graph may be traversed in a reverse order from the point of an identified security event (e.g., a malware detection event) to preceding computing objects, while applying one or more cause identification rules to identify a root cause of the security event. Once a root cause is identified, the event graph may be traversed forward from the root cause to identify other computing objects that are potentially compromised by the root cause.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew J. Thomas, Andrew G. P. Smith, Russell Humphries, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11095609
    Abstract: A threat management facility detects a device on an enterprise network and determines whether the device is one of a set of managed devices for the enterprise network. When the device is not one of the set of managed devices, the device may be directed to a portal that manages admission of unrecognized devices onto the enterprise network. Based on a response of the unrecognized device to the portal (e.g., if the unrecognized device does not respond to the portal), the device may be listed on an unclaimed device page published by the portal and accessible to authorized users of the enterprise network. An authorized user may claim the unrecognized device from the unclaimed device page and, in the process, may provide additional information regarding the unrecognized device. Once claimed, the previously unrecognized device may be permitted to communicate over the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Ross McKerchar, Moritz Daniel Grimm, Jan Karl Heinrich Weber, Shail R. Talati, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20210250366
    Abstract: In a threat management platform, a number of endpoints log events in an event data recorder. A local agent filters this data and feeds a filtered data stream to a central threat management facility. The central threat management facility can locally or globally tune filtering by local agents based on the current data stream, and can query local event data recorders for additional information where necessary or helpful in threat detection or forensic analysis. The central threat management facility also stores and deploys a number of security tools such as a web-based user interface supported by machine learning models to identify potential threats requiring human intervention and other models to provide human-readable context for evaluating potential threats.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew G. P. Smith, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries
  • Patent number: 11087014
    Abstract: Entity models are used to evaluate potential risk of entities, either individually or in groups, in order to evaluate suspiciousness within an enterprise network. These individual or aggregated risk assessments can be used to adjust the security policy for compute instances within the enterprise network. A security policy may specify security settings such as network speed, filtering levels, network isolation, levels of privilege, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Joseph H. Levy, Andrew J. Thomas, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11089056
    Abstract: A honeypot file is cryptographically secured with a cryptographic key. The key, or related key material, is then placed on a central keystore and the file is placed on a data store within the enterprise network. Unauthorized access to the honeypot file can then be detecting by monitoring use of the associated key material, which usefully facilitates detection of file access at any time when, and from any location where, cryptographic access to the file is initiated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Harald Schütz, Andreas Berger, Russell Humphries, Mark D. Harris, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11068615
    Abstract: An authentication model dynamically adjusts authentication factors required for access to a remote resource based on changes to a risk score for a user, a device, or some combination of these. For example, the authentication model may conditionally specify the number and type of authentication factors required by a user/device pair, and may dynamically alter authentication requirements based on changes to a current risk assessment for the user/device while the remote resource is in use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Joseph H. Levy, Andrew J. Thomas, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20210211440
    Abstract: An automated system attempts to characterize code as safe or unsafe. For intermediate code samples not placed with sufficient confidence in either category, human-readable analysis is automatically generated to assist a human reviewer in reaching a final disposition. For example, a random forest over human-interpretable features may be created and used to identify suspicious features in a manner that is understandable to, and actionable by, a human reviewer. Similarly, a k-nearest neighbor algorithm may be used to identify similar samples of known safe and unsafe code based on a model for, e.g., a file path, a URL, an executable, and so forth. Similar code may then be displayed (with other information) to a user for evaluation in a user interface. This comparative information can improve the speed and accuracy of human interventions by providing richer context for human review of potential threats.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2021
    Publication date: July 8, 2021
    Inventors: Joshua Daniel Saxe, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Simon Neil Reed, Kenneth D. Ray, Joseph H. Levy
  • Patent number: 11019056
    Abstract: A threat management facility detects a device on an enterprise network and determines whether the device is one of a set of managed devices for the enterprise network. When the device is not one of the set of managed devices, the threat management facility may determine whether the device is manageable. When the device is unrecognized and unmanageable, a portal may provide support to a user of the device by listing the device on an unclaimed device page published by the portal and accessible to authorized users of the enterprise network. An authorized user may claim the unrecognized device from the unclaimed device page and, in the process, may provide additional information regarding the unrecognized device. Once claimed, the previously unrecognized device may be permitted to communicate over the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Ross McKerchar, Moritz Daniel Grimm, Jan Karl Heinrich Weber, Shail R. Talati, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas
  • Patent number: 10986092
    Abstract: A threat management facility detects a device on an enterprise network and determines whether the device is one of a set of managed devices for the enterprise network. When the device is not one of the set of managed devices, the threat management facility may determine whether the device is manageable. When the device is unrecognized and unmanageable, a portal may provide support to a user of the device by listing the device on an unclaimed device page published by the portal and accessible to authorized users of the enterprise network. An authorized user may claim the unrecognized device from the unclaimed device page and, in the process, may provide additional information regarding the unrecognized device. Once claimed, the previously unrecognized device may be permitted to communicate over the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Ross McKerchar, Moritz Daniel Grimm, Jan Karl Heinrich Weber, Shail R. Talati, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas
  • Patent number: 10979449
    Abstract: A file system extension for an endpoint controls access to files by selectively decrypting files under certain conditions. Where a pattern of access to the files suggests malicious and/or automated file access activity, the file system extension may limit the rate of file access by regulating the rate at which decryption is provided to requesting processes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Russell Humphries, Kenneth D. Ray, Anthony John Merry, Harald Schutz
  • Patent number: 10972431
    Abstract: Secure management of an enterprise network is improved by creating a network adapter fingerprint for an endpoint that identifies all of the network adapters for that endpoint. With this information, the location and connectivity of the endpoint can be tracked and managed independent of the manner in which the endpoint is connecting to the enterprise network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Moritz Daniel Grimm, Daniel Stutz, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 10972485
    Abstract: In a threat management platform, a number of endpoints log events in an event data recorder. A local agent filters this data and feeds a filtered data stream to a central threat management facility. The central threat management facility can locally or globally tune filtering by local agents based on the current data stream, and can query local event data recorders for additional information where necessary or helpful in threat detection or forensic analysis. The central threat management facility also stores and deploys a number of security tools such as a web-based user interface supported by machine learning models to identify potential threats requiring human intervention and other models to provide human-readable context for evaluating potential threats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Beata Ladnai, Mark David Harris, Andrew G. P. Smith, Kenneth D. Ray, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries
  • Publication number: 20210097171
    Abstract: Attachments or other documents can be transmitted to a sandbox environment where they can be concurrently opened for remote preview from an endpoint and scanned for possible malware. A gateway or other intermediate network element may enforce this process by replacing attachments, for example, in incoming electronic mail communications, with links to a document preview hosted in the sandbox environment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2020
    Publication date: April 1, 2021
    Inventors: Ross McKerchar, John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa
  • Patent number: 10965711
    Abstract: Threat detection instrumentation is simplified by providing and updating labels for computing objects in a context-sensitive manner. This may include simple labeling schemes to distinguish between objects, e.g., trusted/untrusted processes or corporate/private data. This may also include more granular labeling schemes such as a three-tiered scheme that identifies a category (e.g., financial, e-mail, game), static threat detection attributes (e.g., signatures, hashes, API calls), and explicit identification (e.g., what a file or process calls itself). By tracking such data for various computing objects and correlating these labels to malware occurrences, rules can be written for distribution to endpoints to facilitate threat detection based on, e.g., interactions of labeled objects, changes to object labels, and so forth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 10938838
    Abstract: An automated system attempts to characterize code as safe or unsafe. For intermediate code samples not placed with sufficient confidence in either category, human-readable analysis is automatically generated to assist a human reviewer in reaching a final disposition. For example, a random forest over human-interpretable features may be created and used to identify suspicious features in a manner that is understandable to, and actionable by, a human reviewer. Similarly, a k-nearest neighbor algorithm may be used to identify similar samples of known safe and unsafe code based on a model for, e.g., a file path, a URL, an executable, and so forth. Similar code may then be displayed (with other information) to a user for evaluation in a user interface. This comparative information can improve the speed and accuracy of human interventions by providing richer context for human review of potential threats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Joshua Daniel Saxe, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Simon Neil Reed, Kenneth D. Ray, Joseph H. Levy
  • Patent number: 10938781
    Abstract: An enterprise security system is improved by instrumenting endpoints to explicitly label network flows with cryptographically secure labels that identify an application or other source of each network flow. Cryptographic techniques may be used, for example, to protect the encoded information in the label from interception by third parties or to support cryptographic authentication of a source of each label. A label may provide health, status, or other heartbeat information for the endpoint, and may be used to identify compromised endpoints, to make routing decisions for network traffic (e.g., allowing, blocking, rerouting, etc.), to more generally evaluate the health of an endpoint that is sourcing network traffic, or for any other useful purpose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray, Joseph H. Levy
  • Patent number: 10896254
    Abstract: Attachments or other documents can be transmitted to a sandbox environment where they can be concurrently opened for remote preview from an endpoint and scanned for possible malware. A gateway or other intermediate network element may enforce this process by replacing attachments, for example, in incoming electronic mail communications, with links to a document preview hosted in the sandbox environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Ross McKerchar, John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Andrew J. Thomas, Russell Humphries, Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa
  • Patent number: 10880269
    Abstract: An enterprise security system is improved by instrumenting endpoints to explicitly label network flows with cryptographically secure labels that identify an application or other source of each network flow. Cryptographic techniques may be used, for example, to protect the encoded information in the label from interception by third parties or to support cryptographic authentication of a source of each label. A label may provide health, status, or other heartbeat information for the endpoint, and may be used to identify compromised endpoints, to make routing decisions for network traffic (e.g., allowing, blocking, rerouting, etc.), to more generally evaluate the health of an endpoint that is sourcing network traffic, or for any other useful purpose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray, Joseph H. Levy
  • Patent number: 10862864
    Abstract: Network devices within an enterprise are configured to pass out-of-band security information such as heartbeats, notifications of compromise, device identification information, and so forth between logical or physical network partitions such as subnets, routing domains, access points, and so forth. This technique can advantageously facilitate integrated management of endpoints across network boundaries that might otherwise interfere with the identification and management of specific devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Moritz Daniel Grimm, Daniel Stutz, Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray