Patents by Inventor Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss

Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss 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: 20240111513
    Abstract: Adapting automatic software update behavior for virtual desktop infrastructure deployed endpoints includes detecting a request for services of a threat management facility for an enterprise network that originates from a compute instance embodied as a virtual machine instantiated from a versioned software template, and updating software on the compute instance based on a determination of availability of updated software for the compute instance and an update pause parameter indicating that updating software for virtual machines instantiated from the versioned software template is permitted for the compute instance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Jonathan Francis Caine, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Timothy Rayment
  • Publication number: 20230412641
    Abstract: A threat management facility for an enterprise provides security services to a number of virtual compute instances executing on a remote cloud computing platform. In order to prevent or reduce an accumulation of records for abandoned compute instances, each new virtual compute instance is explicitly identified by a user (and optionally a template), and then compared to existing records to identify possible redundancies, which can be deleted or otherwise managed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 18, 2022
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Jonathan Francis Caine, Timothy Rayment
  • Publication number: 20220131836
    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: October 4, 2021
    Publication date: April 28, 2022
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 11140130
    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 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Patent number: 10951642
    Abstract: A threat management facility that remotely stores global reputation information for network content can be used in combination with a recognition engine such as a machine learning classifier that is locally deployed on endpoints within an enterprise network. More specifically, the recognition engine can locally evaluate reputation for a network address being accessed by an endpoint, and this reputation information can be used to dynamically establish a timeout for a request from the endpoint to the threat management facility for corresponding global reputation information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Emile Marcus Kenning, Mark David Harris
  • Patent number: 10778725
    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: January 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Dmitri Samosseiko
  • Patent number: 10728269
    Abstract: A security agent conditionally hooks a process for malware monitoring based on a persistent hook state for the process that may be stored, for example, in a process cache. When a process launches in a backoff state indicating that the process previously crashed after hooking, the security agent may further conditionally hook the process based on a reputation of the process or any other relevant contextual information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Mark D. Harris
  • Patent number: 10673902
    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: April 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Mark D. Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20200153849
    Abstract: A threat management facility that remotely stores global reputation information for network content can be used in combination with a recognition engine such as a machine learning classifier that is locally deployed on endpoints within an enterprise network. More specifically, the recognition engine can locally evaluate reputation for a network address being accessed by an endpoint, and this reputation information can be used to dynamically establish a timeout for a request from the endpoint to the threat management facility for corresponding global reputation information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Publication date: May 14, 2020
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Emile Marcus Kenning, Mark David Harris
  • Patent number: 10594717
    Abstract: A threat management facility that remotely stores global reputation information for network content can be used in combination with a recognition engine such as a machine learning classifier that is locally deployed on endpoints within an enterprise network. More specifically, the recognition engine can locally evaluate reputation for a network address being accessed by an endpoint, and this reputation information can be used to dynamically establish a timeout for a request from the endpoint to the threat management facility for corresponding global reputation information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Emile Marcus Kenning, Mark D. Harris
  • Patent number: 10558800
    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: May 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Salvatore 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: 20190342313
    Abstract: A security agent conditionally hooks a process for malware monitoring based on a persistent hook state for the process that may be stored, for example, in a process cache. When a process launches in a backoff state indicating that the process previously crashed after hooking, the security agent may further conditionally hook the process based on a reputation of the process or any other relevant contextual information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Mark D. Harris
  • Publication number: 20190342312
    Abstract: A threat management facility that remotely stores global reputation information for network content can be used in combination with a recognition engine such as a machine learning classifier that is locally deployed on endpoints within an enterprise network. More specifically, the recognition engine can locally evaluate reputation for a network address being accessed by an endpoint, and this reputation information can be used to dynamically establish a timeout for a request from the endpoint to the threat management facility for corresponding global reputation information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2018
    Publication date: November 7, 2019
    Inventors: Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Emile Marcus Kenning, Mark D. Harris
  • Patent number: 10382459
    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: May 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2019
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Mark D. Harris, Simon Neil Reed, Kenneth D. Ray, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook
  • Publication number: 20190149580
    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: January 16, 2019
    Publication date: May 16, 2019
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Dmitri Samosseiko
  • Patent number: 10225286
    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: May 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Dmitri Samosseiko
  • Publication number: 20190028438
    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 27, 2018
    Publication date: January 24, 2019
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20180324220
    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: May 2, 2018
    Publication date: November 8, 2018
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Simon Neil Reed, Mark D. Harris, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Andrew J. Thomas, Robert W. Cook, Dmitri Samosseiko
  • Patent number: 10122687
    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: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Sophos Limited
    Inventors: Andrew J. Thomas, Neil Robert Tyndale Watkiss, Daniel Salvatore Schiappa, Kenneth D. Ray
  • Publication number: 20180276378
    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: May 3, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Kenneth D. Ray, Daniel Salvatore 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