Systems and methods for securing communications

1. A computer-implemented method for securing communications, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

establishing an overlay network within a publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform, the overlay network enabling secure communications between devices by maintaining within the overlay network a services mapping table that defines access rights to at least one of shared data or services; and

transferring data, by the overlay network acting as an intermediary, from a first device that has securely connected to the overlay network to a second device that has securely connected to the overlay network, in accordance with the access rights defined in the services mapping table;

wherein:

the overlay network enables secure communications between devices by further maintaining within the overlay network an access table that maintains a record in part of which target Internet protocol address of the publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform the first device used to connect to the overlay network;

the target Internet protocol address is ephemeral; and

a translation operation is performed to translate an identifier into a corresponding service port or network address to transfer the data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the overlay network comprises a zero trust network.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the access table further defines which services a connected user provides to other users.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the access table further defines which data a connected user provides to other users.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the access table further defines at least one of:

an indication that a connected user is actively connected;

an indication of how the connected user prefers to be notified when other users belonging to a same user group become active;

an indication of when at least one service corresponding to another user becomes active; or

an indication of when at least one shared data item corresponding to another user becomes active.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the overlay network permits a user account to publish at least one of:

protected data that the user account can make available to another user account; or

a service that the user account can make available to the another user account.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the overlay network permits the user account to publish at least one of the protected data and the service in a location independent manner such that publishing occurs regardless of a current location of a user corresponding to the user account.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the overlay network enables multiple devices to access at least one of the protected data and the service such that N-to-N communications are permitted as distinct from being limited to either 1-to-1 or 1-to-N communications.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:

transferring data, by the overlay network acting as the intermediary, further includes transferring data from a first party corresponding to the first device to a second party corresponding to the second device; and

at least one of the first party and the second party is anonymous from a perspective of the other party.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the first party and the second party is anonymous from the perspective of the other party such that the anonymous party uses an anonymized user account identifier.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the overlay network effectively reduces port exposure at a local network gateway through which the first device connects to the overlay network by enabling a user corresponding to the first device to close a service port of a firewall at the local network gateway and, instead of transferring the data across the service port, transferring the data using the overlay network as the intermediary.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein transferring the data is performed without data caching inside the overlay network such that the data passes from the first device to the second device in a pass-through manner with respect to the overlay network.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first device and the second device securely connect to the overlay network using network communications conforming to at least one of:

the INTERNET PROTOCOL SECURITY (IPSEC) protocol;

the TRANSPORT LAYER SECURITY protocol;

the SECURE SOCKETS LAYER protocol;

the SECURE SHELL protocol; or

a public key infrastructure.

14. A system for securing communications, the system comprising:

an establishment module, stored in memory, that establishes an overlay network within a publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform, the overlay network enabling secure communications between devices by maintaining within the overlay network a services mapping table that defines access rights to at least one of shared data or services;

a transferring module, stored in memory, that transfers data, as part of the overlay network acting as an intermediary, from a first device that has securely connected to the overlay network to a second device that has securely connected to the overlay network, in accordance with the access rights defined in the services mapping table; and

at least one physical processor configured to execute the establishment module and the transferring module;

wherein:

the overlay network enables secure communications between devices by further maintaining within the overlay network an access table that maintains a record in part of which target Internet protocol address of the publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform the first device used to connect to the overlay network;

the target Internet protocol address is ephemeral; and

the transferring module is configured to perform a translation operation to translate an identifier into a corresponding service port or network address to transfer the data.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the overlay network comprises a zero trust network.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the access table further defines which services a connected user provides to other users.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the access table further defines which data a connected user provides to other users.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the access table further defines at least one of:

an indication that a connected user is actively connected;

an indication of how the connected user prefers to be notified when other users belonging to a same user group become active;

an indication of when at least one service corresponding to another user becomes active; or

an indication of when at least one shared data item corresponding to another user becomes active.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first device and the second device securely connect to the overlay network using network communications conforming to at least one of:

the INTERNET PROTOCOL SECURITY (IPSEC) protocol;

the TRANSPORT LAYER SECURITY protocol;

the SECURE SOCKETS LAYER protocol;

the SECURE SHELL protocol; or

a public key infrastructure.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

establish an overlay network within a publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform, the overlay network enabling secure communications between devices by maintaining within the overlay network a services mapping table that defines access rights to at least one of shared data or services; and

transfer data, by the overlay network acting as an intermediary, from a first device that has securely connected to the overlay network to a second device that has securely connected to the overlay network, in accordance with the access rights defined in the services mapping table;

wherein:

the overlay network enables secure communications between devices by further maintaining within the overlay network an access table that maintains a record in part of which target Internet protocol address of the publicly available on-demand cloud computing platform the first device used to connect to the overlay network;

the target Internet protocol address is ephemeral; and

a translation operation is performed to translate an identifier into a corresponding service port or network address to transfer the data.