Social network analysis of file access information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10296520-B1
Application number	US-201314108154-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 16, 2013
Priority date	Jul 24, 2013
Publication date	May 21, 2019
Grant date	May 21, 2019

Abstract

An analyzer module may identify a plurality of users and a plurality of files that have been accessed by at least one of the users. Pairs of users may be identified where each user of a pair has accessed at least one same file. A weight value may be calculated for each of the identified pairs. The weight value may be calculated based on a number of same files that each of the users of an identified pair have accessed. Collaboration information associated with the users may be determined based on the weight values.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of managing a network file system, comprising:
receiving file access information identifying a plurality of users and a plurality of files, stored in the network file system, that have been accessed by at least one of the users;
identifying pairs of users of the plurality of users based on each user of each pair accessing at least one same file of the plurality of files;
establishing links between nodes based at least in part upon file access of the users, wherein each node corresponds to one of the users and each link connects two of the nodes corresponding to users of each identified pair of users;
calculating, by a processing device, a weight value for each link based on a number of same files that have been accessed by users associated with each link and a type of access that users associated with each link perform on the number of same files;
determining collaboration information associated with the users based on the weight value for each of the identified pairs of users, wherein the collaboration information identifies user roles and collaborative groups of users accessing related files of the network file system; and
generating a display, to manage the network file system, of the collaboration information to perform at least one of provisioning of file access privileges of the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups and identifying anomalous activity on the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the pairs of users is further based on each user of the pair accessing at least one file under a same folder.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the weight value for each of the identified pairs is further based on a frequency of access of the at least one same file by each user of each identified pair.

4. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein generating a display comprises generating a graph to represent the collaboration information, wherein the graph comprises a plurality of nodes and links.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
clustering the nodes of the graph into a plurality of groups based on the weight value for each of the identified pairs and the links between the nodes corresponding to users of each of the identified pairs of users and using the clustered nodes to perform at least one operation to manage operation of the network file system.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
identifying collaborative groups of users based on the nodes clustered into the groups; and determining at least one of a provisioning of file access privileges based on the identified collaborative groups and identifying anomalous activity on the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the weight value for each of the identified pairs of users is further based on a type of access to the at least one same file by each user of the identified pair of users, a write access to the at least one same file results in a higher weight value than a read access to the at least one same file.

8. A system comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device coupled with the memory to:
receive file access information identifying a plurality of users and a plurality of files, stored in a network file system, that have been accessed by at least one of the users;
identify pairs of users of the plurality of users based on each user of each pair accessing at least one same file of the plurality of files;
establish links between nodes based at least in part upon file access of the users, wherein each node corresponds to one of the users and each link connects two of the nodes corresponding to users of each identified pair of users;
calculate a weight value for each link based on a number of same files that have been accessed by users associated with each link and a type of access that users associated with each link perform on the number of same files; and

determine collaboration information associated with the users based on the weight value for each of the identified pairs of users, wherein the collaboration information identifies user roles and collaborative groups of users accessing related files of the network file system;
generate a display, to manage the network file system, of the collaboration information to perform at least one of provisioning of file access privileges of the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups and identifying anomalous activity on the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the identifying of the pairs of users is further based on each user of the pair accessing at least one file under a same folder.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the calculating of the weight value for each of the identified pairs is further based on a frequency of access of the at least one same file by each user of each identified pair.

11. The system of claim 8 ,
wherein the generate a display comprises generate a graph to represent the collaboration information, wherein the graph comprises a plurality of nodes and links.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further to:
cluster the nodes of the graph into a plurality of groups based on the weight value for each of the identified pairs and the links between the nodes corresponding to users of each of the identified pairs of users and using the clustered nodes to perform at least one operation to manage operation of the enterprise network file system.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processing device is further to:
identify collaborative groups of users based on the nodes clustered into the groups; and
determine at least one of a provisioning of file access privileges based on the identified collaborative groups and identify anomalous activity on the network file system based on the identified collaborative groups.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the calculating of the weight value for each of the identified pairs of users is further based on a type of access to the at least one same file by each user of the identified pair of users, a write access to the at least one same file results in a higher weight value than a read access to the at least one same file.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving file access information identifying a plurality of users and a plurality of files, stored in a network file system, that have been accessed by at least one of the users;
identifying pairs of users of the plurality of users based on each user of each pair accessing at least one same file of the plurality of files;
establishing links between nodes based at least in part upon file access of the users, wherein each node corresponds to one of the users and each link connects two of the nodes corresponding to users of each identified pair of users;
calculating a weight value for each link based on a number of same files that have been accessed by users associated with each link and a type of access that users associated with each link perform on the number of same files; and
determining collaboration information associated with the users based on the weight value for each of the identified pairs of users, wherein the collaboration information identifies user roles and collaborative groups of users accessing related files of the network file system;
generating a display

Assignees

• Veritas Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Ganesh Anantharaman
• Hart Michael Andrew

Classifications

• G06F16/285 Primary

  Clustering or classification · CPC title

• G06F16/335

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles (filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536) · CPC title

• G06F16/176

  Support for shared access to files; File sharing support · CPC title

• G06F17/30598

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9027

  Trees · CPC title