Hyperlink Handling via Virtual Machine Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud-based customer support systems face challenges in safely handling potentially unsafe hyperlinks, which can lead to malware attacks and access to sensitive information, as existing technologies lack effective mechanisms to assess and mitigate risks associated with these links.
Innovation Solution
A system employing a virtual machine instance with minimized access controls processes potentially unsafe hyperlinks in an isolated environment, rendering them safe for use by customer service representatives, using risk assessment factors and rewriting hyperlinks to point to internal safe versions of resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If hyperlinks are directly accessed from customer support requests, then customer service representatives can access useful information, but the system becomes vulnerable to malware attacks and security breaches
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hyperlink processing system that acts as an intermediary between customer support requests and external web resources. This system retrieves, renders, and sanitizes hyperlinks before making them accessible to customer service representatives, thereby blocking malware while preserving useful information access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a safe copy of the external resource by rendering the hyperlink content within a controlled environment. Instead of directly accessing the external URL, the system fetches the content, processes it through a rendering engine, and provides the rendered version to the customer service representative, eliminating the security risk while maintaining information availability.
2Reliability
If hyperlinks are blocked entirely to prevent security risks, then malware attacks are prevented, but customer service representatives lose access to useful external resources
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than completely blocking hyperlinks, the patent implements an intermediary processing layer that selectively allows safe content while filtering out malicious elements. The system retrieves external resources, processes them through a controlled rendering environment, and delivers only the sanitized content to customer service representatives.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the potential harm of malicious hyperlinks into a benefit by using the rendering process to automatically detect and remove harmful elements. The same mechanism that could deliver malware is converted into a security filter that actively identifies and eliminates threats while preserving legitimate content.
3Reliability
If all hyperlinks are processed through a rendering system, then security is improved, but processing time and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs hyperlink processing in advance by retrieving and rendering external resources before they are needed by customer service representatives. This preliminary action allows the system to pre-sanitize content and store it for quick retrieval, reducing the perceived processing time during actual customer support operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates pre-rendered copies of external resources that can be quickly delivered to customer service representatives without requiring real-time processing. By fetching and processing the content ahead of time, the system eliminates the time penalty during critical customer support interactions.
Data Source
AI summary
A support service application may process a request that contains a hyperlink. The hyperlink may be examined to determine a level of risk associated with accessing a resource referred to by the hyperlink. An execution environment for processing the hyperlink may be identified. The execution environment may comprise a virtual machine drawn from a pool of virtual machines. The resource may be retrieved by a browser process operating within the context of the virtual machine, and a safe version of the resource may be rendered and made available to customer support personnel using the support service application.