Adaptive network security using zero trust microsegmentation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12531912-B2
Application number	US-202318343402-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2023
Priority date	Apr 24, 2023
Publication date	Jan 20, 2026
Grant date	Jan 20, 2026

Abstract

Zero trust and micro-segmentation techniques may be collectively used to enhance network security. To establish, refine, and enforce a zero-trust least-privileged policy, the network may be segmented to put each device of the network into a respective network of one, which forces all network traffic to pass through a zero-trust gatekeeper. The gatekeeper may then monitor and analyze the traffic to establish, refine, and enforce the zero-trust least-privileged policy, which reduces network access to only a limited set of network actions and/or paths. Using the gatekeeper, network traffic may be monitored to progressively establish the policy as well as to continually refine the policy. Recommended actions may be determined based on the analysis of the monitored network traffic and provided to the user to allow user feedback on the communication rules of zero-trust policy.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A zero-trust microsegmentation method comprising:
establishing a network where each device of the network is in its own network-of-one with a gatekeeper being a default gateway for the devices; collecting, using the gatekeeper, information associated with the devices of the network; determining, based on the collected information, a plurality of network microsegments; determining a zero-trust security policy in which permission for communications by the devices of the network is denied by default unless otherwise allowed; selectively allowing communications, based on received feedback and a communication template including one or more predefined allowed communications, associated with one or more of the plurality of network microsegments; and denying communications over all remaining communication paths associated with the one or more of the plurality of network microsegments.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, iteratively:
determining network traffic patterns; and adapting the selectively allowed communications and the denied communications based on the determined network traffic patterns.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the network traffic patterns comprises analyzing firewall logs to analyze allowed and/or denied communications.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the zero-trust security policy comprises:
allowing communications as previously permitted; determining, by the gatekeeper, network traffic patterns based on analysis of communications traversing the gatekeeper; providing the determined traffic patterns to a user; and selectively allowing or denying based on feedback from the user, one or more communications associated with one or more of the plurality of network microsegments and/or one or more of the devices.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing communications traversing the gatekeeper using heuristics to determine the plurality of network microsegments and/or the zero-trust security policy.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising continually observing denied network traffic and providing a notification of the denied network traffic to a user, wherein the received feedback is received in response to the provided notification.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
analyzing the selectively allowed communications; determining recommendations for one or more additional network control actions based on the analysis of the selectively allowed communications; and adapting the selectively allowed communications based on received-feedback responsive to the determined recommendations.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising displaying the determined recommendations to a user, wherein the feedback responsive to the determined recommendations includes an input from the user.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the selectively allowed communications are analyzed using heuristics to determine the recommendations.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the feedback is automatically generated based on the determined recommendations so as to automatically adapt the selectively allowed communications.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the networks-of-one are configured to cause all device traffic to traverse the gatekeeper.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing the network comprises implementing a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 or a subnet mask/32 to establish the respective network-of-one for each of the devices of the network, the networks-of-one causing all device traffic to traverse the gatekeeper.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises: device information of one or more of the devices; network information; geolocation information of one or more of the devices; and/or user information of one or more users associated with one or more of the devices.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the devices of the network are free of local zero-trust agents configured to provide zero-trust least-privilege micro-segmentation.

15 . An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and a memory for storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to: determine a plurality of network microsegments based on information associated with devices of a network collected by a gatekeeper deployed in the network, wherein each of the devices of the network is in its own network-of-one; determine a zero-trust security policy in which permission for communications by the devices of the network is denied by default unless otherwise allowed; selectively allow communications, based on received feedback and a communication template including one or more predefined allowed communications, associated with one or more of the plurality of network microsegments; and deny communications over all remaining communication paths associated with the one or more of the plurality of network microsegments.

16 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein, to determine the zero-trust security policy, the processor is configured to:
allow communications as previously permitted; determine network traffic patterns based on analysis of communications traversing the gatekeeper; provide the determined traffic patterns to a user; and selectively allow or deny, based on feedback from the user, one or more communications associated with one or more of the plurality of network microsegments.

17 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the networks-of-one of the respective devices are established using subnet masking that causes all device traffic to traverse the gatekeeper.

18 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the apparatus to control the gatekeeper to collect the information associated with the devices of the network.

19 . A network gatekeeper comprising:
a processor; and a memory for storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the gatekeeper to:
collect information associated with devices of a network where each device of the network is in its own network-of-one, the gatekeeper being a default gateway for the devices, wherein the network is configured to cause all device traffic to traverse the gatekeeper;
determine, based on the collected information, a plurality of network microsegments;
determine a zero-trust security policy in which permission for communications by the devices of the network is denied by default unless otherwise allowed;
selectively allow communications, based on received feedback, associated with one or more of the plurality of network microsegments; and
deny communications over all remaining communication paths associated with the one or more of the plurality of network microsegments.

20 . The network gatekeeper of claim 19 , wherein the selective allowing of the communications is further based on a communication template including one or more predefined allowed communications.

Assignees

• Colortokens Inc

Inventors

• Akali Harish
• Tyagi Satyam
• Owen Wyn
• Kollimarla Surya
• Khazanchi Rajesh

Classifications

• H04L63/0263 Primary

  Rule management · CPC title

• H04L63/1425

  Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection · CPC title

• H04L63/0227

  Filtering policies (mail message filtering H04L51/212) · CPC title

• H04L63/205

  involving negotiation or determination of the one or more network security mechanisms to be used, e.g. by negotiation between the client and the server or between peers or by selection according to the capabilities of the entities involved (negotiation of communication capabilities H04L69/24) · CPC title

• H04L63/0236

  Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL · CPC title