Patents by Inventor Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien

Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien 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: 20180167300
    Abstract: This document relates to a distributed network coordinate system. One implementation provides computer-readable storage media including instructions that may cause a processor to perform certain acts. For example, the acts may include storing an initial network location of a first device in a network. The network may include the first device and a second device. The acts may also include monitoring one or more network performance metrics related to existing application communications with the second device, and determining an updated network location of the first device, based on the initial network location and the network performance metrics. Aspects of network health can be derived from monitoring changes in the network locations of various devices within the coordinate system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: June 14, 2018
    Inventors: Lihua YUAN, Sharad AGARWAL, Kevin DAMOUR, Thekkthalackal Varugis KURIEN, Albert G. GREENBERG, Randall KERN
  • Patent number: 9871711
    Abstract: This document relates to a distributed network coordinate system. One implementation provides computer-readable storage media including instructions that may cause a processor to perform certain acts. For example, the acts may include storing an initial network location of a first device in a network. The network may include the first device and a second device. The acts may also include monitoring one or more network performance metrics related to existing application communications with the second device, and determining an updated network location of the first device, based on the initial network location and the network performance metrics. Aspects of network health can be derived from monitoring changes in the network locations of various devices within the coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Lihua Yuan, Sharad Agarwal, Kevin Damour, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Albert G. Greenberg, Randall Kern
  • Patent number: 9311483
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide multiple partitions hosted on an isolation technology such as a hypervisor where at least one of the partitions, a local secure service partition (LSSP), provides security services to other partitions. The service partitions (LSSPs) host those high assurance services that require strict security isolation, where the service can be shared across partitions and accessed even when the user is not connected to a network. The LSSP also can certify the results of any computation using a key signed by a TPM attestation identity key (AIK), or other key held securely by the hypervisor or a service partition. The LSSPs may be configured to provide trusted audit logs, trusted security scans, trusted cryptographic services, trusted compilation and testing, trusted logon services, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Paul England, Ravindra Nath Pandya, Niels Ferguson
  • Patent number: 9166797
    Abstract: Systems and methods that establish a secured compartment that manages sensitive user transactions/information on a user's machine. The secured compartment qualifies user interaction with the machine, and separates such qualified interaction from other user activity on the machine. A user is switched to such secured compartment upon occurrence of a predetermined event, such as in form of: an explicit request (e.g., a secure attention sequence); an implicit request (e.g., inference of user activities); and presence of a peripheral device that is bound to the secured compartment (e.g., a USB)—wherein such actions typically cannot be generated by an application running outside the secured compartment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Cormac E. Herley, Alice Jane Bernheim Brush, Daniel C. Robbins, Arindam Chatterjee, Scott Field
  • Patent number: 9135357
    Abstract: Methods for using scenario solution-related information to generate customized user experiences are provided. Upon receiving a user query, a plurality of results is returned, each result being representative of a scenario solution which may be utilized to address a particular issue relevant to the received query. At the time of authoring, each scenario solution is organized based upon one or more keywords and/or one or more categories (i.e., namespaces). Data associated with a namespace/keyword corresponding to a returned search result may be mined to determine information beyond basic scenario solution search results that may be of interest to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Steven E. Jackson, Scott A. Field
  • Publication number: 20140370482
    Abstract: A virtual lab is generated for a underlying learning objective defined by a lab instructor. The virtual lab is decomposed into multiple lab steps. Each lab step defines a portion of the underlying learning objective that can be performed independently. Each lab step includes pedagogical information for teaching a learner the portion of the underlying learning objective and information for specifying a portion of the underlying system that will execute the lab step. A first portion of the underlying system is caused to execute a first lab step. This allows the learner to perform the portion of the underlying learning objective defined in the first lab step. An event generated by the learner's performance of the first lab step is received. In response, a specific pedagogical procedure that is dictated by the event is caused to be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2013
    Publication date: December 18, 2014
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Alpesh Gaglani, Arunprakash Balakrishnan, Eric . D. Schweickert, Daniel Behrendt, Vinay Balasubramaniam, Suyash Sinha
  • Publication number: 20140337524
    Abstract: This document relates to a distributed network coordinate system. One implementation provides computer-readable storage media including instructions that may cause a processor to perform certain acts. For example, the acts may include storing an initial network location of a first device in a network. The network may include the first device and a second device. The acts may also include monitoring one or more network performance metrics related to existing application communications with the second device, and determining an updated network location of the first device, based on the initial network location and the network performance metrics. Aspects of network health can be derived from monitoring changes in the network locations of various devices within the coordinate system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2014
    Publication date: November 13, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Lihua YUAN, Sharad AGARWAL, Kevin DAMOUR, Thekkthalackal Varugis KURIEN, Albert G. GREENBERG, Randall KERN
  • Patent number: 8825813
    Abstract: This document relates to a distributed network coordinate system. One implementation provides computer-readable storage media including instructions that may cause a processor to perform certain acts. For example, the acts may include storing an initial network location of a first device in a network. The network may include the first device and a second device. The acts may also include monitoring one or more network performance metrics related to existing application communications with the second device, and determining an updated network location of the first device, based on the initial network location and the network performance metrics. Aspects of network health can be derived from monitoring changes in the network locations of various devices within the coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Lihua Yuan, Sharad Agarwal, Kevin Damour, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Albert G. Greenberg, Randall Kern
  • Publication number: 20140059680
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide multiple partitions hosted on an isolation technology such as a hypervisor where at least one of the partitions, a local secure service partition (LSSP), provides security services to other partitions. The service partitions (LSSPs) host those high assurance services that require strict security isolation, where the service can be shared across partitions and accessed even when the user is not connected to a network. The LSSP also can certify the results of any computation using a key signed by a TPM attestation identity key (AIK), or other key held securely by the hypervisor or a service partition. The LSSPs may be configured to provide trusted audit logs, trusted security scans, trusted cryptographic services, trusted compilation and testing, trusted logon services, and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Publication date: February 27, 2014
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Paul England, Ravindra Nath Pandya, Niels Ferguson
  • Patent number: 8619971
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide multiple partitions hosted on an isolation technology such as a hypervisor where at least one of the partitions, a local secure service partition (LSSP), provides security services to other partitions. The service partitions (LSSPs) host those high assurance services that require strict security isolation, where the service can be shared across partitions and accessed even when the user is not connected to a network. The LSSP also can certify the results of any computation using a key signed by a TPM attestation identity key (AIK), or other key held securely by the hypervisor or a service partition. The LSSPs may be configured to provide trusted audit logs, trusted security scans, trusted cryptographic services, trusted compilation and testing, trusted logon services, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Paul England, Ravindra Nath Pandya, Niels Ferguson
  • Patent number: 8615801
    Abstract: Software is authorized in accordance with a reputation of the software. A trust in the author and/or publisher of the software is determined via digital signatures and/or CoAs, and a reputation of the software is utilized to determine the intent of the software. The reputation of the software can be determined via a local service, such as an enterprise IT department and/or via a reputation determination service. When software is downloaded or to be executed, the trust in the author/publisher is determined using digital signatures and/or CoAs associated with the software. If the author/publisher is determined to be trusted, a service is called to determine the reputation of the software. The software can be installed and/or executed dependent upon the reputation of the software and trustworthiness of the author/publisher.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: David B. Cross, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Scott A. Field
  • Patent number: 8347085
    Abstract: At computer device power on, the operating system of the computer device initiates a monitor. The monitor assigns a monitoring program to each program and object (collectively, “program”) running on the computer device to monitor the activities of the program. When the monitoring program is assigned to a program, the monitoring program is assigned an integrity and/or privacy label (collectively, “integrity label”) based on predetermined criteria applied to the monitored program. The monitoring program, in turn, assigns an integrity label to the program monitored by the monitoring program. The integrity label assigned to the monitored program is less than or equal to the integrity label of the monitoring program. The monitor enforces an integrity policy of the computer device based on the integrity label assigned to monitored programs and the integrity label associated with data, another program, or a remote network resource that the monitored program is seeking to access.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Jeffrey B Hamblin, Narasimha Rao Nagampalli, Peter T Brundrett, Scott Field
  • Patent number: 8225131
    Abstract: Today, data networks are ever increasing in size and complexity. For example, a datacenter may comprise hundreds of thousands of service endpoints configured to perform work. To reduce network wide degradation, a load balancer may send work requests to healthy service endpoints, as opposed to unhealthy and/or inoperative service endpoints. Accordingly, among other things, one or more systems and/or techniques for monitoring service endpoints, which may be scalable for large scale networks, are provided. In particular, a consistent hash function may be performed to generate a monitoring scheme comprising assignments of service endpoints to monitoring groups. In this way, multiple monitoring components may monitor a subset of endpoints to ascertain health status. Additionally, the monitoring components may communicate between one another so that a monitoring component may know heath statuses of service endpoints both assigned and not assigned to the monitoring component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Saurabh Mahajan, Vladimir Shubin, Kevin Thomas Damour, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Lihua Yuan
  • Publication number: 20120166598
    Abstract: This document relates to a distributed network coordinate system. One implementation provides computer-readable storage media including instructions that may cause a processor to perform certain acts. For example, the acts may include storing an initial network location of a first device in a network. The network may include the first device and a second device. The acts may also include monitoring one or more network performance metrics related to existing application communications with the second device, and determining an updated network location of the first device, based on the initial network location and the network performance metrics. Aspects of network health can be derived from monitoring changes in the network locations of various devices within the coordinate system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2010
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Lihua Yuan, Sharad Agarwal, Kevin Damour, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Albert G. Greenberg, Randall Kern
  • Publication number: 20120102577
    Abstract: At computer device power on, the operating system of the computer device initiates a monitor. The monitor assigns a monitoring program to each program and object (collectively, “program”) running on the computer device to monitor the activities of the program. When the monitoring program is assigned to a program, the monitoring program is assigned an integrity and/or privacy label (collectively, “integrity label”) based on predetermined criteria applied to the monitored program. The monitoring program, in turn, assigns an integrity label to the program monitored by the monitoring program. The integrity label assigned to the monitored program is less than or equal to the integrity label of the monitoring program. The monitor enforces an integrity policy of the computer device based on the integrity label assigned to monitored programs and the integrity label associated with data, another program, or a remote network resource that the monitored program is seeking to access.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2011
    Publication date: April 26, 2012
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Jeffrey B. Hamblin, Narasimha Rao Nagampalli, Peter T. Brundrett, Scott Field
  • Patent number: 8117441
    Abstract: At computer device power on, the operating system of the computer device initiates a monitor. The monitor assigns a monitoring program to each program and object (collectively, “program”) running on the computer device to monitor the activities of the program. When the monitoring program is assigned to a program, the monitoring program is assigned an integrity and/or privacy label (collectively, “integrity label”) based on predetermined criteria applied to the monitored program. The monitoring program, in turn, assigns an integrity label to the program monitored by the monitoring program. The integrity label assigned to the monitored program is less than or equal to the integrity label of the monitoring program. The monitor enforces an integrity policy of the computer device based on the integrity label assigned to monitored programs and the integrity label associated with data, another program, or a remote network resource that the monitored program is seeking to access.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Jeffrey B Hamblin, Narasimha Rao Nagampalli, Peter T Brundrett, Scott Field
  • Publication number: 20110314326
    Abstract: Today, data networks are ever increasing in size and complexity. For example, a datacenter may comprise hundreds of thousands of service endpoints configured to perform work. To reduce network wide degradation, a load balancer may send work requests to healthy service endpoints, as opposed to unhealthy and/or inoperative service endpoints. Accordingly, among other things, one or more systems and/or techniques for monitoring service endpoints, which may be scalable for large scale networks, are provided. In particular, a consistent hash function may be performed to generate a monitoring scheme comprising assignments of service endpoints to monitoring groups. In this way, multiple monitoring components may monitor a subset of endpoints to ascertain health status. Additionally, the monitoring components may communicate between one another so that a monitoring component may know heath statuses of service endpoints both assigned and not assigned to the monitoring component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Saurabh Mahajan, Vladimir Shubin, Kevin Thomas Damour, Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Lihua Yuan
  • Patent number: 8078604
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for identifying executable scenario solutions relevant to a user query and returning such executable scenario solutions as search results in response to the user query are provided. Upon receiving a user query, a plurality of results is returned, each result being representative of a series of steps which may be implemented to address a particular issue relevant to the received user query. Often, a series of steps or scenario includes a number of sub-scenarios, each of which is to be executed sequentially to achieve the desired result. Accordingly, upon selection of a particular search result, the user may be guided through a series of sub-scenario result options until an item having direct association to a series of steps is selected. Once selected, the executable scenario solution is presented to the user for execution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Steven E. Jackson, Scott A. Field, Philip J. Lafornara
  • Publication number: 20110010354
    Abstract: Methods for using scenario solution-related information to generate customized user experiences are provided. Upon receiving a user query, a plurality of results is returned, each result being representative of a scenario solution which may be utilized to address a particular issue relevant to the received query. At the time of authoring, each scenario solution is organized based upon one or more keywords and/or one or more categories (i.e., namespaces). Data associated with a namespace/keyword corresponding to a returned search result may be mined to determine information beyond basic scenario solution search results that may be of interest to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2010
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: THEKKTHALACKAL VARUGIS KURIEN, STEVEN E. JACKSON, SCOTT A. FIELD
  • Patent number: 7818341
    Abstract: Methods for using scenario solution-related information to generate customized user experiences are provided. Upon receiving a user query, a plurality of results is returned, each result being representative of a scenario solution which may be utilized to address a particular issue relevant to the received query. At the time of authoring, each scenario solution is organized based upon one or more keywords and/or one or more categories (i.e., namespaces). Data associated with a namespace/keyword corresponding to a returned search result may be mined to determine information beyond basic scenario solution search results that may be of interest to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Thekkthalackal Varugis Kurien, Steven E. Jackson, Scott A. Field