Patents by Inventor Marc Woolward

Marc Woolward 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: 9525697
    Abstract: Systems and methods for delivering security functions to a distributed network are described herein. An exemplary method may include: processing a data packet received from a switch, the data packet directed to the at least one network asset; selectively forwarding the data packet using the processing and a rule set; inspecting the forwarded packet; directing the enforcement point to at least one of forward the data packet to the at least one network asset and drop the data packet, using the inspection and the rule set; accumulating data associated with at least one of the data packet, the processing, and the inspection; analyzing the at least one of the data packet, the processing, and the inspection; and initiating compilation of a high-level security policy by the compiler using the analysis to produce an updated rule set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Marc Woolward, Choung-Yaw Shieh, Jia-Jyi Lian
  • Patent number: 9521115
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for producing a firewall rule set are provided herein. Exemplary methods may include: receiving metadata about a deployed container from a container orchestration layer; determining an application or service associated with the container from the received metadata; retrieving at least one model using the determined application or service, the at least one model identifying expected network communications behavior of the container; and generating a high-level declarative security policy associated with the container using the at least one model, the high-level declarative security policy indicating at least an application or service with which the container can communicate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Marc Woolward
  • Patent number: 9483317
    Abstract: Systems and methods for using a plurality of processing cores for packet processing in a virtualized network environment are described herein. An example system can comprise a scheduler operable to initiate a processing core of the plurality of processing cores. The processing core is operable to process a plurality of data packets. Based on the determination that the processing core exceeds a threshold processing capacity associated with the processing core, the scheduler sequentially initiates at least one subsequent processing core. The at least one subsequent processing core has a corresponding threshold processing capacity and is operable to process data packets of the plurality of data packets in excess of threshold processing capacities associated with preceding processing cores. Thus, the threshold processing capacities associated with the preceding processing cores are not exceeded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Choung-Yaw Shieh, Marc Woolward, Yi Sun
  • Publication number: 20160294875
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for a security system are provided herein. Exemplary methods may include: acquiring a firewall security policy from a policy compiler; receiving network traffic originating from a source machine and directed to a destination machine; analyzing the network traffic using the firewall security policy; forwarding or dropping each of the network traffic according to the security policy; and redirecting one or more network packets of the network traffic according to the security policy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Jia-Jyi Lian, Anthony Paterra, Marc Woolward
  • Publication number: 20160294858
    Abstract: Systems and methods for delivering security functions to a distributed network are described herein. An exemplary method may include: processing a data packet received from a switch, the data packet directed to the at least one network asset; selectively forwarding the data packet using the processing and a rule set; inspecting the forwarded packet; directing the enforcement point to at least one of forward the data packet to the at least one network asset and drop the data packet, using the inspection and the rule set; accumulating data associated with at least one of the data packet, the processing, and the inspection; analyzing the at least one of the data packet, the processing, and the inspection; and initiating compilation of a high-level security policy by the compiler using the analysis to produce an updated rule set.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2015
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Marc Woolward, Choung-Yaw Michael Shieh, Jia-Jyi Lian
  • Publication number: 20160294774
    Abstract: Some embodiments include methods comprising: writing entries in a forwarding table of a switch through an application programming interface (API) of the switch, such that first data packets from a first host and directed to a second host are forwarded by the switch to an enforcement point; receiving the first data packets; forwarding the first data packets to the enforcement point using the forwarding table; determining whether the first data packets violate a high-level security policy using a low-level rule set; configuring the forwarding table through the API such that second data packets are forwarded by the switch to the second host, in response to determining the first data packets do not violate the security policy; configuring the forwarding table through the API such that the second data packets are dropped or forwarded to a security function by the switch, in response to the determining.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2015
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: Marc Woolward, Choung-Yaw Shieh
  • Publication number: 20160269425
    Abstract: Systems for providing security to distributed microservices are provided herein. In some embodiments, a system includes a plurality of microservices, each of the plurality of microservices having a plurality of distributed microservice components. At least a portion of the distributed microservice components execute on different physical or virtual servers in a data center or a cloud. The system also includes a plurality of logical security boundaries, with each of the plurality of logical security boundaries being created by a plurality of enforcement points positioned in association with the plurality of distributed microservice components. Each of plurality of microservices is bounded by one of the plurality of logical security boundaries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 13, 2015
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Choung-Yaw Michael Shieh, Marc Woolward
  • Patent number: 9380027
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for producing a firewall rule set are provided herein. Exemplary methods may include receiving a declarative policy associated with a computer network security policy; collecting information from at least one external system of record; generating a firewall rule set using the declarative policy and information, the firewall rule set including addresses to or from which network communications are permitted, denied, redirected or logged, the firewall rule set being at a lower level of abstraction than the declarative policy; and provisioning the firewall rule set to a plurality of enforcement points of a distributed firewall, the firewall selectively policing network communications among workloads using the firewall rule set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Jia-Jyi Lian, Anthony Paterra, Marc Woolward
  • Patent number: 9294442
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for a security system are provided herein. Exemplary methods may include: acquiring a firewall security policy from a policy compiler; receiving network traffic originating from a source machine and directed to a destination machine; analyzing the network traffic using the firewall security policy; forwarding or dropping each of the network traffic according to the security policy; accumulating the network traffic and metadata associated with the network traffic; and initiating an update to the firewall security policy by the policy compiler using at least one of the accumulated network traffic and metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: vArmour Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Jia-Jyi Lian, Anthony Paterra, Marc Woolward