Screen Name User Discovery via Intermediary Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to reliably associate users with screen names in 'rogue protocols' like IM, making it difficult to detect and prevent abuses in enterprise networks, as policy rules cannot be effectively enforced without identifiable user names.
Innovation Solution
A local server maintains associations between screen names and actual users by intercepting messages, requesting user information from an authorization server using IP addresses, and updating its database, allowing policy enforcement across all associated screen names.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If policy rules are applied to protocol messages in enterprise networks, then network security and compliance are improved, but the ability to enforce these rules is compromised when users employ screen names instead of identifiable user names
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mapping system that translates screen names to identifiable user names through multiple data sources including registry files, domain controllers, and authorization servers. This intermediary layer preserves policy enforcement capability while accommodating user anonymity preferences by maintaining the mapping relationships without requiring direct exposure of user identities in the protocol messages themselves.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing mapping relationships between screen names and user identifiers through automated discovery processes. Before policy enforcement is needed, the system proactively builds and maintains databases containing the associations between anonymous screen names and identifiable user accounts, ensuring that when policy rules need to be applied, the necessary identification information is already available.
2Reliability
If automated user discovery systems are implemented to map screen names to user identifiers, then policy enforcement capability is improved, but system complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal discovery mechanism that operates across multiple rogue protocols simultaneously. The same core infrastructure and mapping techniques are applied universally to different protocol types (IM, P2P, game protocols, distributed computing protocols), eliminating the need for separate discovery systems for each protocol and thereby reducing overall system complexity despite the multi-protocol capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs self-service mechanisms where the discovery process automatically queries existing network infrastructure components (registry files, domain controllers, authorization servers) without requiring manual configuration or intervention. The system serves itself by autonomously building and maintaining the screen name to user identifier mappings through automated queries and data collection from available network resources.
Data Source
AI summary
Automatic discovery of users associated with screen names for rogue protocols. A local server associates screen names with users, updating those associations in response to the protocol. The local server intercepts protocol messages, determines if they relate to unknown users, and obtains information associating screen names with users. Policy rules are applied to all screen names for the same user in an aggregated manner. The local server sends a request to an authorization server coupled to the local network, including the IP address for that screen name. The authorization server interrogates a registry file on the user workstation to obtain a GUID for that user, and from that GUID obtains a unique logon name for that user from the domain controller for a local network.