Patents by Inventor Kevin David Himberger

Kevin David Himberger 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: 8478831
    Abstract: Managing e-mails from a source suspected of sending spam. The e-mails are received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server. A determination is made whether a source has sent an e-mail which exhibits characteristics of spam. In response, subsequent e-mails from the source destined for the mail server are rate-limiting at the firewall or router such that the firewall or router limits a rate at which the subsequent e-mails are forwarded from the firewall or router to the mail server. The rate limit can be a limit on a number of e-mails per unit of time from the source that will be forwarded from the firewall or router to the mail server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Patent number: 8468208
    Abstract: A system, method and program product for blocking unwanted e-mails. An e-mail is identified as unwanted. A source IP address of the unwanted e-mail is determined. Other source IP addresses owned or registered by an owner or registrant of the source IP address of the unwanted e-mail are determined. Subsequent e-mails from the source IP address and the other IP addresses are blocked. This will thwart a spammer who shifts to a new source IP address when its spam is blocked from one source IP address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Patent number: 8423645
    Abstract: A method of, system for, and product for managing a denial of service attack in a multiprocessor environment comprising. The first step is establishing normal traffic usage baselines in the multiprocessor environment. Once the baseline is established the next step is monitoring outgoing traffic to detect a high proportion of packets being sent to a specific destination address, and a high number of outbound packets compared to said baseline. Next is monitoring ports and protocols to detect a high proportion of packets sent to a specific port, and a consistent use of a protocol for all packets for that port. If there is such consistent use of a protocol for all packets for that port as to evidence a denial of service attack, blocking measures are started to mitigate the apparent denial of service attack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Clark Debs Jeffries, Robert William Danford, Terry Dwain Escamilla, Kevin David Himberger
  • Publication number: 20130067562
    Abstract: A system, method and program product for managing e-mails from a source suspected of sending spam. The e-mails are received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server. A determination is made whether a source has sent an e-mail which exhibits characteristics of spam. In response, subsequent e-mails from the source destined for the mail server are rate-limiting at the firewall or router such that the firewall or router limits a rate at which the subsequent e-mails are forwarded from the firewall or router to the mail server. The rate is predetermined and less than a maximum rate at which the firewall or router can physically forward e-mails to the mail server absent the rate limit. A determination is made whether another source has sent another e-mail which exhibits more characteristics of spam than the first said e-mail. In response, subsequent e-mails from this other source are blocked at the firewall or router.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2012
    Publication date: March 14, 2013
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Publication number: 20120265834
    Abstract: A system, method and program product for blocking unwanted e-mails. An e-mail is identified as unwanted. A source IP address of the unwanted e-mail is determined. Other source IP addresses owned or registered by an owner or registrant of the source IP address of the unwanted e-mail are determined. Subsequent e-mails from the source IP address and the other IP addresses are blocked. This will thwart a spammer who shifts to a new source IP address when its spam is blocked from one source IP address.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2012
    Publication date: October 18, 2012
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Patent number: 8176126
    Abstract: A system, method and program product for managing e-mails from a source suspected of sending spam. The e-mails are received at a firewall or router en route to a mail server. A determination is made whether a source has sent an e-mail which exhibits characteristics of spam. In response, subsequent e-mails from the source destined for the mail server are rate-limiting at the firewall or router such that the firewall or router limits a rate at which the subsequent e-mails are forwarded from the firewall or router to the mail server. The rate is predetermined and less than a maximum rate at which the firewall or router can physically forward e-mails to the mail server absent the rate limit. A determination is made whether another source has sent another e-mail which exhibits more characteristics of spam than the first said e-mail. In response, subsequent e-mails from this other source are blocked at the firewall or router.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Patent number: 7957372
    Abstract: A detection and response system including a set of algorithms for detecting within a stream of normal computer traffic a subset of (should focus on network traffic eliciting a response) TCP or UDP packets with one IP Source Address (SA) value, one or a few Destination Address (DA) values, and a number exceeding a threshold of distinct Destination Port (DP) values. A lookup mechanism such as a Direct Table and Patricia search tree record and trace sets of packets with one SA and one DA as well as the set of DP values observed for the given SA, DA combination. The detection and response system reports the existence of such a subset and the header values including SA, DA, and multiple DPs of the subset. The detection and response system also includes various administrative responses to reports.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan David Boulanger, Robert William Danford, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries
  • Patent number: 7669240
    Abstract: A detection and response system including a set of algorithms for detection within a stream of normal computer traffic a subset of TCP packets with one IP Source Address (SA), one Destination Port (DP), and a number exceeding a threshold of distinct Destination Addresses (DA). There is efficient use of a lookup mechanism such as a Direct Table and Patricia search tree to record sets of packets with one SA and one DP as well as the set of DA values observed for the given SA, DP combination. The existence of such a subset and the header values including SA, DP, and multiple DAs of the subset are reported to a network administrator. In addition, various administrative responses to reports are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan David Boulanger, Robert William Danford, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries
  • Patent number: 7657942
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for providing a current and complete security compliance view of an enterprise system. The present invention provides the ability to gain a real-time security posture and security compliance view of an enterprise and to assess the risk impact of known threats and attacks to continued business operations at various levels is provided. Responsive to a change to an enterprise environment, a request, or an external threat, an administrator loads or updates at least one of a Critical Application Operations database, a Historical database, an Access Control database, a Connectivity database, and a Threat database. Based on a comparison of information in the databases against similar security data elements from company or external policies, the administrator may generate a Security Compliance view of the enterprise. A Security Posture view may also be generated by comparing the Security Compliance view against data in the Threat database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Charles Steven Lingafelt, Allen Leonid Roginsky, Phillip Singleton
  • Patent number: 7617526
    Abstract: A method of blocking spam at a firewall involves applying blocking measures for an adaptively determined duration. The blocking measure is then suspended while determining whether the spam has ended. If so, the method resets to an initial state. Otherwise, the blocking measure is re-applied for a second duration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Fred Davis, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Garreth Joseph Jeremiah
  • Patent number: 7489246
    Abstract: System and method for recording temperature on an RFID tag. A first RFID tag is attached to a container. The first RFID tag includes a temperature sensor. The container contains a multiplicity of packages. A multiplicity of second RFID tags are attached to the multiplicity of packages, respectively. The first RFID tag transmits temperature information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags. In response, the multiplicity of second RFID tags record the temperature information. Consequently, there is no need for expensive temperature sensors on the multiplicity of RFID tags on the packages. According to features of the present invention, the first RFID tag is an active RFID tag, and the multiplicity of second RFID tags are passive RFID tags. The first RFID tag also transmits other information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags to enable the second RFID tags to authenticate the temperature information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Mohammad Peyravian
  • Patent number: 7464404
    Abstract: A method of progressive response for invoking and suspending blocking measures that defend against network anomalies such as malicious network traffic so that false positives and false negatives are minimized. When a truncated secure session attack is detected, the detector notifies protective equipment such as a firewall or a router to invoke a blocking measure. The blocking measure is maintained for an initial duration, after which it is suspended while another test for the anomaly is made. If the attack is no longer evident, the method returns to the state of readiness. Otherwise, a loop is executed to re-applying the blocking measure for a specified duration, then suspend the blocking measure and test again for the attack. If the attack is detected, the blocking measure is re-applied, and its duration is adapted. If the attack is no longer detected, the method returns to the state of readiness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Edward Carpenter, Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Mohammad Peyravian
  • Patent number: 7327260
    Abstract: System and method for recording temperature on an RFID tag. A first RFID tag is attached to a container. The first RFID tag includes a temperature sensor. The container contains a multiplicity of packages. A multiplicity of second RFID tags are attached to the multiplicity of packages, respectively. The first RFID tag transmits temperature information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags. In response, the multiplicity of second RFID tags record the temperature information. Consequently, there is no need for expensive temperature sensors on the multiplicity of RFID tags on the packages. According to features of the present invention, the first RFID tag is an active RFID tag, and the multiplicity of second RFID tags are passive RFID tags. The first RFID tag also transmits other information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags to enable the second RFID tags to authenticate the temperature information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin David Himberger, Clark Debs Jeffries, Mohammad Peyravian
  • Publication number: 20060261946
    Abstract: System and method for recording temperature on an RFID tag. A first RFID tag is attached to a container. The first RFID tag includes a temperature sensor. The container contains a multiplicity of packages. A multiplicity of second RFID tags are attached to the multiplicity of packages, respectively. The first RFID tag transmits temperature information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags. In response, the multiplicity of second RFID tags record the temperature information. Consequently, there is no need for expensive temperature sensors on the multiplicity of RFID tags on the packages. According to features of the present invention, the first RFID tag is an active RFID tag, and the multiplicity of second RFID tags are passive RFID tags. The first RFID tag also transmits other information to the multiplicity of second RFID tags to enable the second RFID tags to authenticate the temperature information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2005
    Publication date: November 23, 2006
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kevin David Himberger, Clark Jeffries, Mohammad Peyravian