Granted Patent B2

US 12,500,823 · App. 18/359,895 · Granted Dec 16, 2025

Inventors: Jason Crabtree (Vienna, VA); Richard Kelley (Woodbridge, VA)

Assignee: QOMPLX LLC

H04L43/028G06F21/6218H04L43/04H04L63/1416H04L67/535

Abstract

Claims (34)

1 . A computing system, comprising a hardware memory, wherein the computer system executes software instructions stored on nontransitory machine-readable storage media configured to:

capture a network packet in a network, the network packet comprising a payload;

analyze the network packet to identify an ontology associated with the payload;

maintain an authentication object database comprising a record of valid authentication objects issued by the network, each authentication object being associated with a user and an access session;

validate the network packet by determining whether the network packet is associated with a valid authentication object from the authentication object database;

when the network packet is associated with a valid authentication object from the authentication object database, add a first metadata tag to the network packet, the first metadata tag comprising the associated valid authentication object;

add a second metadata tag to the network packet, the second metadata tag being associated with the identified ontology and indicating a semantic classification of the payload;

obtain data utilization tracking information by tracking the tagged network packet as the tagged network packet traverses the network;

obtain user entity and behavior analysis (UEBA) data associated with a specific user associated with the valid authentication object, wherein the UEBA data comprises behavioral risk indicators; and

use the data utilization tracking information, the validated authentication object, and the UEBA data as inputs to determine a data utilization risk score for the network packet.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer system is further configured to execute software instructions stored on nontransitory machine-readable storage media that:

obtain a plurality of data contracts;

analyze the plurality of data contracts to identify commonalities and differences in the way data is organized, wherein the commonalities comprise identified key concepts and relationships;

create a common vocabulary by mapping and aligning terms used in the plurality of data contracts based on the identified key concepts and relationships; and

store the common vocabulary as an ontology.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the ontology is industry-specific.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein one or more ontologies are used to identify the ontology associated with the payload of the network packet.

5 . A method for data utilization tracking, comprising the steps of:

capturing a network packet, the network packet comprising a payload;

analyzing the network packet to identify an ontology associated with the payload;

maintaining an authentication object database comprising a record of valid authentication objects issued by the network, each authentication object being associated with a user and an access session;

validating the network packet by determining whether the network packet is associated with a valid authentication object from the authentication object database;

when the network packet is associated with a valid authentication object from the authentication object database, adding a first metadata tag to the network packet, the first metadata tag comprising the associated valid authentication object;

adding a second metadata tag to the network packet, the second metadata tag being associated with the identified ontology and indicating a semantic classification of the payload;

obtaining data utilization tracking information by tracking the tagged network packet as the tagged network packet traverses the network;

obtaining user entity and behavior analysis (UEBA) data associated with a specific user associated with the valid authentication object, wherein the UEBA data comprises behavioral risk indicators; and

using the data utilization tracking information, the validated authentication object, and the UEBA data as inputs to determine a data utilization risk score for the network packet.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:

obtaining a plurality of data contracts;

analyzing the plurality of data contracts to identify commonalities and differences in the way data is organized, wherein the commonalities comprise identified key concepts and relationships;

creating a common vocabulary by mapping and aligning terms used in the plurality of data contracts based on the identified key concepts and relationships; and

storing the common vocabulary as an ontology.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the ontology is industry-specific.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein one or more ontologies are used to identify the ontology associated with the payload of the network packet.

Assignments (6)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (185)