Granted Patent B2

US 7,461,398 · App. 10/970,552 · Granted Dec 2, 2008

Abstract

Claims (27)

1. A method of managing security parameters for an endpoint communications device during a communications session with another communications device, the method comprising:

monitoring the communications session for information visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect first changing aspects of the communication session;

querying a network device for information not visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect second changing aspects of the communication session;

determining appropriate security parameters responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects; and

dynamically updating current security parameters of the endpoint communications device with the appropriate security parameters during the communications session to provide a variable degree of security for the session responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining appropriate security parameters comprises:

correlating the detected first and second changing aspects to predetermined security parameters associated with each of the detected aspects to determine the appropriate security parameters.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining appropriate security parameters further comprises filtering the predetermined security parameters according to a software application used for the communications session to determine the appropriate security parameters that are usable by the software application.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining appropriate security parameters further comprises obtaining customer security preferences and associating each of the obtained security preferences with security parameters to update correlation rules and/or the predetermined security parameters.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the customer security preferences comprise overall level of security for the communications session, specific levels of security information for respective aspects of the communications session, and/or specific levels of trust for respective parties to the communications session.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information visible at the endpoint communications device comprises endpoint-visible information including at least one of a type and/or contents of the communications session, devices and/or software applications used for the communications session, method of connection and/or interface, parties at each endpoint of the communications session, and/or endpoint associated parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information not visible at the endpoint communications device comprises network-visible information including at least one of communications channel information for the session, customer profile and/or purchased level of service information, network conditions, security rating and/or historical trust level and/or status and/or parameters associated with one or more networks to be traversed in the communications session, owners and/or operators of the networks to be traversed, communications session type, and/or networks connected at and/or between each endpoint of the communication session.

8. A system for managing security parameters for an endpoint communications device during a communications session with another communications device, comprising:

an electronic device including a security control module therein, the security control module comprising:

a detection module configured to monitor the communications session for information visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect first changing aspects of the communication session and configured to query a network device for information not visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect second changing aspects of the communication session; and

a determination module configured to determine appropriate security parameters responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects and configured to dynamically update current security parameters of the endpoint communications device with the appropriate security parameters during the communications session to provide a variable degree of security for the session responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the determination module is configured to correlate the detected first and second changing aspects to predetermined security parameters associated with each of the detected aspects and filter the predetermined security parameters according to a software application used for the communications session to determine the appropriate security parameters that are usable by the software application.

10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising an interface module configured to obtain customer security preferences and associate each of the obtained security preferences with security parameters to update correlation rules and/or the predetermined security parameters.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the detection module comprises a locally-based detection module configured to monitor the communications session for endpoint-visible information and a network-based detection module configured to query the network for network-visible information during the communications session.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the determination module comprises a network-based determination module configured to correlate the network-visible information to predetermined network security parameters and a locally-based determination module configured to correlate the endpoint-visible information to predetermined endpoint security parameters.

13. A computer program product for managing security parameters for an endpoint communications device during a communications session with another communications device, comprising:

a tangible computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to monitor the communications session for information visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect first changing aspects of the communication session;

computer readable program code configured to query a network device for information not visible at the endpoint communications device during the communications session to detect second changing aspects of the communication session;

computer readable program code configured to determine appropriate security parameters responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects; and

computer readable program code configured to dynamically update current security parameters of the endpoint communications device with the appropriate security parameters during the communications session to provide a variable degree of security for the session responsive to the detected first and second changing aspects.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the computer readable program code configured to determine appropriate security parameters is configured to correlate the detected first and second changing aspects to predetermined security parameters associated with each of the detected aspects and filter the predetermined security parameters according to a software application used for the communications session to determine the appropriate security parameters that are usable by the software application.

Assignments (9)