Just-in-time access based on geolocation to maintain control of restricted data in cloud computing environments

US10476886B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC · US

Inventors

• Ramnath Prasad · Redmond, US
• Pradeep Ayyappan Nair · Redmond, US
• Veena Ramachandran · Sammamish, US
• Sandeep Kalarickal · Kirkland, US
• Thomas Knudson · Draper, US
• Pavan Gopal Bandla · Duvall, US
• Chetan Shankar · Bothell, US
• Ranajoy Sanyal · Bothell, US
• Qingsu Wu · Redmond, US
• Chi Zhou · Woodinville, US
• Thomas Keane · Seattle, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 8, 2017
• Grant date: Nov 12, 2019
• Expiry date: May 8, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F8/60
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for DevOps personnel who do not have persistent access to restricted data or the ability to modify the cloud computing environment to gain access to restricted data. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a DevOps device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes geolocation criteria limiting the geolocation from which JIT access can be automatically granted. The geolocation of the DevOps device is evaluated against the geolocation criteria. If the geolocation criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the DevOps device.