Mobile application control

Abstract

A device user may determine what applications from a set of applications may access the corporate network and which applications do not access the network. An indication of the limits on what a corporate network may access on a user personal device may provided to a user and either accepted or rejected. The user, if the user agreement is accepted, may receive a list of allowed applications and modify the list by removing applications on the list which the user does not want to send data to the corporate network. Both the user and a corporate network administrator may view the user accepted limits and track what user device applications actually have accessed the corporate network to confirm compliance with the limits.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 973,248, titled “Mobile Connect,” filed Mar. 31, 2014, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Consumers continue to push for a mechanism that allows them to use their own device to perform typical work tasks. In most cases, these devices are owned by the individual user, which means the company may have zero control over them. Because companies have little if any control over these user devices, there is concern regarding providing the device access to corporate remote networks due to the potential for attacks vectors (nefarious applications, leaking, tampering, or otherwise disclosing of critical intellectual property owned by company). The market has coined the term “unmanaged device” or “BYOD” (bring your own device) to represent any device that is not owned or controlled by the company that nee...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent is about a method and system for controlling access to a corporate network through an appliance and a remote device. It allows for granular control of application access, with a user agreement indicating the limits of what the corporate network can access on a user's device. The user can modify the agreement to remove applications they don't want to send data to. Both the user and the network administrator can view the agreement to confirm compliance. The invention makes it easy to establish a secure connection between a user's device and a server, ensuring that only the allowed applications can access the network.

Problems solved by technology

In most cases, these devices are owned by the individual user, which means the company may have zero control over them.

Because companies have little if any control over these user devices, there is concern regarding providing the device access to corporate remote networks due to the potential for attacks vectors (nefarious applications, leaking, tampering, or otherwise disclosing of critical intellectual property owned by company).

Some companies require employee devices to be put under mobile device management (MDM) control before allowed onto the corporate network, but such a configuration is not really zero control.

With the advent of BYOD, users need to access the corporate intranet but do not want their personal information to be available to the corporate intranet.

Despite current VPN per application solutions, there are still concerns regarding the vulnerability of corporate network access from personal user devices.

Images