Implementing security in a social application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10116705-B2
Application number	US-201715807423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2017
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

Implementing security in social applications includes inferring a closeness level of a connection to a user's profile of a social application based on a closeness policy and implementing a security level individualized to the connection based on the closeness level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for implementing security in social applications, comprising hardware processing resources communicating with hardware memory resources to implement:
an inference engine to infer a closeness level, based on a closeness policy, between a first user having a user's profile on a social application and a second user having an existing connection in the social application to the first user, the inference engine to assign a score to the inferred closeness level; and
a security implementation engine to implement a security level, based on said score, that is individualized to said second user, the security level dictating a corresponding set of security mechanisms to be applied to communications received by the first user from the second user such that the security level applied to the second user corresponds to the inferred closeness level.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a monitoring engine to monitor communications between said first and second users.

3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising an adjusting engine to adjust said closeness level and score in real time in response to real time monitoring of said communications for abusive keywords.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a removing engine to selectively remove said connection from said social application, wherein criteria for removing said connection varies with closeness level.

5. The system of claim 4 , further comprising a threshold determination engine to determine a closeness level threshold where connections are removed from said user's profile in response to falling below said closeness level threshold.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said closeness policy considers a frequency of communication between said first and second users through said social application, a type of communication between said first and second users through said social application, subject matter in communications between first and second users through said social application, and a classification of said connection in said social application.

7. A method for implementing security in a social application that is to operate over a computer network, the method comprising:
inferring a closeness level, based on a closeness policy, between a first user having a user's profile on a social application and a second user having an existing connection in the social application to the first user, the inference engine to assign a score to the inferred closeness level; and
implementing a security level, based on said score, that is individualized to said second user, the security level dictating a corresponding set of security mechanisms to be applied to communications received by the first user from the second user such that the security level applied to the second user corresponds to the inferred closeness level.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising monitoring communications between said first and second users.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising adjusting said closeness level and score in real time in response to real time monitoring of said communications for abusive keywords.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising selectively removing said connection from said social application, wherein criteria for removing said connection varies with closeness level.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising determining a closeness level threshold where connections are removed from said user's profile in response to falling below said closeness level threshold.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein said closeness policy considers any of a frequency of communication between said first and second users through said social application, and a type of communication between said first and second users through said social application.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein said closeness policy considers any of subject matter in communications between first and second users through said social application, and a classification of said connection in said social application.

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium system comprising instructions for implementing security in social applications when executed by a processor, the instructions causing the process to:
infer a closeness level, based on a closeness policy, between a first user having a user's profile on a social application and a second user having an existing connection in the social application to the first user, the inference engine to assign a score to the inferred closeness level; and
implement a security level, based on said score, that is individualized to said second user, the security level dictating a corresponding set of security mechanisms to be applied to communications received by the first user from the second user such that the security level applied to the second user corresponds to the inferred closeness level.

15. The product of claim 14 , further comprising instructions causing the processor to monitor communications between said first and second users.

16. The product of claim 15 , further comprising instructions causing the processor to adjust said closeness level and score in real time in response to real time monitoring of said communications for abusive keywords.

17. The product of claim 14 , further comprising instructions causing the processor to selectively remove said connection from said social application, wherein criteria for removing said connection varies with closeness level.

18. The product of claim 17 , further comprising instructions causing the processor to determine a closeness level threshold where connections are removed from said user's profile in response to falling below said closeness level threshold.

19. The product of claim 17 , wherein said closeness policy considers a frequency of communication between said first and second users through said social application.

20. The product of claim 17 , wherein said closeness policy considers a type of communication between said first and second users through said social application.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dunne Jonathan
• Flood Jason
• Sloyer Jeffrey B
• Stewart Ian D

Classifications

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L63/105

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• H04L63/102

  Entity profiles · CPC title

• H04L63/1416

  Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection · CPC title

• H04L63/1408

  by monitoring network traffic (monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00) · CPC title