Patents by Inventor Sean A. Moore

Sean A. Moore 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: 11349854
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia
  • Publication number: 20220166755
    Abstract: An enterprise organization may operate a central network and one or more remote networks, each comprising a plurality of computing devices. For protection against malicious actors, the central network may be configured to filter network traffic associated with the computing devices based on identified threats. Traffic corresponding to computing devices connected to the remote network may be tunneled to the central network for filtering by the central network. A tunnel gateway device, associated with the remote network, may efficiently identify which communications are associated with Internet threats, and tunnel such identified traffic to the central network, where actions may be taken to protect the enterprise network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2022
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Peter P. Geremia
  • Publication number: 20220131835
    Abstract: A packet-filtering network appliance protects networks from threats by enforcing policies on in-transit packets crossing network boundaries. The policies are composed of packet filtering rules derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI). Logs of rule-matching packets and their flows are sent to cyberanalysis applications located at security operations centers (SOCs). Some cyber threats/attacks, or incidents, are composed of many different flows occurring at a very high rate, generating a flood of logs that may overwhelm computer, storage, network, and cyberanalysis resources, thereby compromising cyber defenses. The present disclosure describes incident logging that efficiently incorporates logs of many flows that comprise the incident, potentially reducing resource consumption while improving the informational/cyberanalytical value for cyberanalysis when compared to the component flow logs. Incident logging vs. flow logging can be automatically and adaptively switched on or off.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2021
    Publication date: April 28, 2022
    Inventors: John Fenton, Peter Geremia, Richard Goodwin, Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jess Parnell, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11316823
    Abstract: Network devices that are inserted inline into network links and process in-transit packets may significantly improve their packet-throughput performance by not assigning L3 IP addresses and L2 MAC addresses to their network interfaces and thereby process packets through a logical fast path that bypasses the slow path through the operating system kernel. When virtualizing such Bump-In-The-Wire (BITW) devices for deployment into clouds, the network interfaces must have L3 IP and L2 MAC addresses assigned to them. Thus, packets are processed through the slow path of a virtual BITW device, significantly reducing the performance. By adding new logic to the virtual BITW device and/or configuring proxies, addresses, subnets, and/or routing tables, a virtual BITW device can process packets through the fast path and potentially improve performance accordingly. For example, the virtual BITW device may be configured to enforce a virtual path (comprising the fast path) through the virtual BITW device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Goodwin, Paul Sprague, Peter Geremia, Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11316876
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia
  • Publication number: 20220116369
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for selectively decrypting SSL/TLS communications. Contents of the decrypted communications that may result in some action; for example, to terminate the communications, or to log and store the plaintext packets of the communications for subsequent content inspection and analysis. A SSL/TLS proxy may examine the information contained in the TLS handshake protocol and/or examine other information associated with the connection. Based on the examination, a proxy may determine whether or not to decrypt the encrypted communications. The proxy may take additional actions based on content inspection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2021
    Publication date: April 14, 2022
    Inventor: Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11290424
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for integrating cyber threat intelligence (CTI), threat metadata, and threat intelligence gateways with analysis systems to form efficient and effective system for active, proactive, and reactive network protection. A network gateway may be composed of multiple stages. A first stage may include a threat intelligence gateway (TIG). A second stage may include one or more cyber analysis systems that ingest TIG-filtered communications and associated threat metadata signals. A third stage may include network protection logic that determines which protective actions. The gateway may be provisioned and configured with rules that specify the network protection policies to be enforced. The gateway may ingest all communications flowing between the protected network and the unprotected network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jess Parnell, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Publication number: 20220078202
    Abstract: A packet-filtering device may receive packet-filtering rules configured to cause the packet-filtering device to identify packets corresponding to network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may receive packets and, for each packet, may determine that the packet corresponds to criteria specified by a packet-filtering rule. The criteria may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators. The packet-filtering device may apply an operator specified by the packet-filtering rule. The operator may be configured to cause the packet-filtering device to either prevent the packet from continuing toward its destination or allow the packet to continue toward its destination.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 16, 2021
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Keith A. George, Peter P. Geremia, Pierre Mallett, III, Sean Moore, Robert T. Perry, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Patent number: 11271902
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system described herein may be configured to filter packets with encrypted hostnames in accordance with one or packet-filtering rules. The packet-filtering system may resolve a plaintext hostname from ciphertext comprising an encrypted Server Name Indication (eSNI) value. The packet-filtering system may resolve the plaintext hostname using a plurality of techniques. Once the plaintext hostname is resolved, the packet-filtering system may then use the plaintext hostname to determine whether the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators. If the packet-filtering system determines that the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators, the packet-filtering system may apply a packet filtering operation associated with the packet-filtering rules to the packets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Publication number: 20220070140
    Abstract: Network devices that are inserted inline into network links and process in-transit packets may significantly improve their packet-throughput performance by not assigning L3 IP addresses and L2 MAC addresses to their network interfaces and thereby process packets through a logical fast path that bypasses the slow path through the operating system kernel. When virtualizing such Bump-In-The-Wire (BITW) devices for deployment into clouds, the network interfaces must have L3 IP and L2 MAC addresses assigned to them. Thus, packets are processed through the slow path of a virtual BITW device, significantly reducing the performance. By adding new logic to the virtual BITW device and/or configuring proxies, addresses, subnets, and/or routing tables, a virtual BITW device can process packets through the fast path and potentially improve performance accordingly. For example, the virtual BITW device may be configured to enforce a virtual path (comprising the fast path) through the virtual BITW device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Richard Goodwin, Paul Sprague, Peter Geremia, Sean Moore
  • Patent number: 11233777
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for selectively decrypting SSL/TLS communications. Contents of the decrypted communications that may result in some action; for example, to terminate the communications, or to log and store the plaintext packets of the communications for subsequent content inspection and analysis. A SSL/TLS proxy may examine the information contained in the TLS handshake protocol and/or examine other information associated with the connection. Based on the examination, a proxy may determine whether or not to decrypt the encrypted communications. The proxy may take additional actions based on content inspection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Sean Moore
  • Publication number: 20220021650
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system described herein may be configured to filter packets with encrypted hostnames in accordance with one or packet-filtering rules. The packet-filtering system may resolve a plaintext hostname from ciphertext comprising an encrypted Server Name Indication (eSNI) value. The packet-filtering system may resolve the plaintext hostname using a plurality of techniques. Once the plaintext hostname is resolved, the packet-filtering system may then use the plaintext hostname to determine whether the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators. If the packet-filtering system determines that the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators, the packet-filtering system may apply a packet filtering operation associated with the packet-filtering rules to the packets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Publication number: 20220021651
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system described herein may be configured to filter packets with encrypted hostnames in accordance with one or packet-filtering rules. The packet-filtering system may resolve a plaintext hostname from ciphertext comprising an encrypted Server Name Indication (eSNI) value. The packet-filtering system may resolve the plaintext hostname using a plurality of techniques. Once the plaintext hostname is resolved, the packet-filtering system may then use the plaintext hostname to determine whether the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators. If the packet-filtering system determines that the packets are associated with one or more threat indicators, the packet-filtering system may apply a packet filtering operation associated with the packet-filtering rules to the packets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Vincent Mutolo, Jonathan R. Rogers
  • Publication number: 20220014536
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Publication number: 20220014538
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Publication number: 20220014537
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Publication number: 20210360014
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Publication number: 20210352094
    Abstract: A packet-filtering system configured to filter packets in accordance with packet-filtering rules may receive data indicating network-threat indicators and may configure the packet-filtering rules to cause the packet-filtering system to identify packets comprising unencrypted data, and packets comprising encrypted data. A portion of the unencrypted data may correspond to one or more of the network-threat indicators, and the packet-filtering rules may be configured to cause the packet-filtering system to determine, based on the portion of the unencrypted data, that the packets comprising encrypted data correspond to the one or more network-threat indicators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 23, 2021
    Publication date: November 11, 2021
    Inventors: David K. Ahn, Sean Moore, Douglas M. Disabello
  • Publication number: 20210336929
    Abstract: Enterprise users' mobile devices typically access the Internet without being protected by the enterprise's network security policy, which exposes the enterprise network to Internet-mediated attack by malicious actors. This is because the conventional approach to protecting the mobile devices and associated enterprise network is to tunnel all of the devices' Internet communications to the enterprise network, which is very inefficient since typically only a very small percentage of Internet communications originating from an enterprise's mobile devices are communicating with Internet hosts that are associated with threats. In the present disclosure, the mobile device efficiently identifies which communications are associated with Internet threats, and tunnels only such identified traffic to the enterprise network, where actions may be taken to protect the enterprise network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Publication date: October 28, 2021
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Peter P. Geremia
  • Patent number: 11159546
    Abstract: A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: Centripetal Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Moore, Jonathan R. Rogers, Vincent Mutolo, Peter P. Geremia