Access control of edges in graph index applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9602513-B2
Application number	US-201414474421-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 2, 2014
Priority date	Feb 28, 2014
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

A computer-implemented method that monitors the activity of different nodes within a system as well as crowd sourcing activity. The computer-implemented method determines that a first node formed a relationship with a second node, generates an edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node, stores the edge in a graph index and assigns a privacy setting to the edge based on the relationship between the first and second nodes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method being implemented in a graph index application comprising:
determining that a first node formed a relationship with a second node based upon an activity between the first node and the second node;
generating an edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node;
storing information associated with the generated edge in a graph index;
assigning a privacy setting to the edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node;
storing the privacy setting in the graph index, the graph index being stored in an enterprise server; and
communicating, to the first node or the second node, an enterprise graph that excludes information from the graph index associated with edges that have privacy settings set to true and are not associated with the first node or the second node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the graph index is stored in a database that is stored on the enterprise server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the enterprise graph is produced by including information from the graph index associated with edges that are associated with the first node or the second node.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationship represents that more than a threshold number of edges exist in the graph index associated with the second node.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the relationship represents that more than a threshold number of edges exist in the graph index associated with the second node and other nodes in a set of nodes associated with the first node.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the edges in the graph index represent that the second node and a threshold number of nodes in a set of nodes is associated with the first node are private.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the graph index stores relationships between actors as edges between various nodes with a value indicating a privacy setting.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a query formulated to exclude information from the enterprise graph that is set to be private where the requestor of the query is not identified as the first node.

9. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processing circuit;
a monitoring component operative on the at least one processing circuit to monitor activity of different nodes in an enterprise server;
a relationship component operative on the at least one processing circuit to determine that a first node formed a relationship with a second node, generate an edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node, and store the generated edge in a graph index;
a privacy component operative on the at least one processing circuit to assign a privacy setting to the edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node, store the privacy setting in the graph index; and
an index component operative on the at least one processing circuit to, in response to a query of the graph index from a requestor, communicate query results that exclude edges from the graph index that have privacy settings set to true and are not associated with a node associated with the requestor.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the graph index is stored in a database.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the database is stored on an enterprise server.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the privacy setting is a Boolean value.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the relationship is that more than a threshold number of edges exist in the graph index associated with the second node and other nodes in a set of nodes associated with the first node.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the edges in the graph index associated with the second node and a threshold number of nodes in a set of nodes associated with the first node are private.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the index component is further operative to:
receive a request from the requestor to generate the graph index;
determine the identity of the requestor; and
send to the requestor the graph index based on the identity of the requester.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the index component is further operative to:
compare the identity of the requestor with nodes in the graph index to determine a node associated with the requestor; and
exclude edges from the graph index that have privacy settings set to true and do not originate from the node associated with the requestor.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the index component is further operative to exclude nodes from the graph index that are not connected by edges to the node associated with the requestor.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the index component is further operative to exclude nodes from the graph index that are not connected by edges to the node associated with the requestor and are not in a set of nodes associated with the node associated with the requestor.

19. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the index component is further operative to produce an enterprise graph associated with a requestor of the query.

20. A method being implemented in a graph index application comprising:
monitoring activity of different nodes in an enterprise server;
determining that a first node formed a relationship with a second node;
generating an edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node;
storing the generated edge in a graph index;
assigning a privacy setting to the edge based on the relationship between the first node and the second node;
store the privacy setting in the graph index; and
communicating, in response to a query of the graph index from a requestor, an enterprise graph that excludes edges from the graph index that have privacy settings set to true and are not associated with a node associated with the requestor.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Gamage Roshan
• Lilleby Bjornstein
• Macksood Azmil
• Wang Øivind
• Kvalheim Bård
• Brugård Håkon
• Devik Rune
• Helvik Torbjørn

Classifications

• G06F16/13

  File access structures, e.g. distributed indices (arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06) · CPC title

• H04L63/10 Primary

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• G06F17/30091

  Physics · mapped topic