Patents by Inventor Mark D. Harris

Mark D. Harris 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: 9419989
    Abstract: Threat detection is improved by monitoring variations in observable events and correlating these variations to malicious activity. The disclosed techniques can be usefully employed with any attribute or other metric that can be instrumented on an endpoint and tracked over time including observable events such as changes to files, data, software configurations, operating systems, and so forth. Correlations may be based on historical data for a particular machine, or a group of machines such as similarly configured endpoints. Similar inferences of malicious activity can be based on the nature of a variation, including specific patterns of variation known to be associated with malware and any other unexpected patterns that deviate from normal behavior. Embodiments described herein use variations in, e.g., server software updates or URL cache hits on an endpoint, but the techniques are more generally applicable to any endpoint attribute that varies in a manner correlated with malicious activity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20160173509
    Abstract: Threat detection is improved by monitoring variations in observable events and correlating these variations to malicious activity. The disclosed techniques can be usefully employed with any attribute or other metric that can be instrumented on an endpoint and tracked over time including observable events such as changes to files, data, software configurations, operating systems, and so forth. Correlations may be based on historical data for a particular machine, or a group of machines such as similarly configured endpoints. Similar inferences of malicious activity can be based on the nature of a variation, including specific patterns of variation known to be associated with malware and any other unexpected patterns that deviate from normal behavior. Embodiments described herein use variations in, e.g., server software updates or URL cache hits on an endpoint, but the techniques are more generally applicable to any endpoint attribute that varies in a manner correlated with malicious activity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Mark D. Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas
  • Publication number: 20160173510
    Abstract: Threat detection is improved by monitoring variations in observable events and correlating these variations to malicious activity. The disclosed techniques can be usefully employed with any attribute or other metric that can be instrumented on an endpoint and tracked over time including observable events such as changes to files, data, software configurations, operating systems, and so forth. Correlations may be based on historical data for a particular machine, or a group of machines such as similarly configured endpoints. Similar inferences of malicious activity can be based on the nature of a variation, including specific patterns of variation known to be associated with malware and any other unexpected patterns that deviate from normal behavior. Embodiments described herein use variations in, e.g., server software updates or URL cache hits on an endpoint, but the techniques are more generally applicable to any endpoint attribute that varies in a manner correlated with malicious activity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20160173525
    Abstract: Threat detection is improved by monitoring variations in observable events and correlating these variations to malicious activity. The disclosed techniques can be usefully employed with any attribute or other metric that can be instrumented on an endpoint and tracked over time including observable events such as changes to files, data, software configurations, operating systems, and so forth. Correlations may be based on historical data for a particular machine, or a group of machines such as similarly configured endpoints. Similar inferences of malicious activity can be based on the nature of a variation, including specific patterns of variation known to be associated with malware and any other unexpected patterns that deviate from normal behavior. Embodiments described herein use variations in, e.g., server software updates or URL cache hits on an endpoint, but the techniques are more generally applicable to any endpoint attribute that varies in a manner correlated with malicious activity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2014
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Kenneth D. Ray, Mark D. Harris
  • Publication number: 20160080417
    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: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Mark D. Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20160080420
    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: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Dmitri Samosseiko
  • Publication number: 20160078225
    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: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Dan Schiappa, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Harald Schütz, John Edward Tyrone Shaw, Anthony John Merry
  • Publication number: 20160080418
    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: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Robert W. Cook, Andrew J. Thomas, Dmitri Samosseiko, Mark D. Harris
  • Publication number: 20160080399
    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: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2014
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Kenneth D. Ray, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook
  • Patent number: 8607347
    Abstract: In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for providing a scanning of data associated with a network computer facility. In the process, a request may be received for network content from a content requesting computing facility. A source lookup associated with the request for network content may be performed, where the source lookup may be from a networked source lookup database. The requested network content may then be retrieved, where the type of the content may be determined as a further aid in scanning the content. A checksum of at least a portion of the retrieved network content may then be calculated, and a checksum lookup associated with the portion of the retrieved network content be performed, where the checksum lookup may be from a networked checksum lookup database. Finally, an action may be taken based on at least one of the source lookup and checksum lookup, where the action is associated with protecting the content requesting computing facility from malware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Andrew J. Thomas, Mario Magdic, James I. G. Lyne
  • Publication number: 20100083380
    Abstract: In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for providing a scanning of data associated with a network computer facility. In the process, a request may be received for network content from a content requesting computing facility. A source lookup associated with the request for network content may be performed, where the source lookup may be from a networked source lookup database. The requested network content may then be retrieved, where the type of the content may be determined as a further aid in scanning the content. A checksum of at least a portion of the retrieved network content may then be calculated, and a checksum lookup associated with the portion of the retrieved network content be performed, where the checksum lookup may be from a networked checksum lookup database. Finally, an action may be taken based on at least one of the source lookup and checksum lookup, where the action is associated with protecting the content requesting computing facility from malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Andrew J. Thomas, Mario Magdic, James I.G. Lyne
  • Patent number: 7440471
    Abstract: A system, method and computer program product are provided for translating between Internet Protocols (IP's). Initially, data is received over the Internet utilizing a first IP. Such data is adapted for being processed by an application program. Next, it is determined whether the application program can process data received over the Internet utilizing the first IP. If it is determined that the application program can not process data received over the Internet utilizing the first IP, the data is converted from the first IP to a second IP that the application program is capable of processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: McAfee, Inc.
    Inventors: Alex Hinchliffe, Fraser Peter Howard, Igor G. Muttik, Mark D. Harris