Secure method and system for computer protection
US7958554B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 24, 2004 |
| Grant date | Jun 7, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 12, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L63/1441
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Attacks by computer viruses, worm programs, and other hostile software (‘malware’), have become very serious problems for computer systems connected to large communication networks such as the Internet. One potential defence against such attacks is to employ diversity—that is, making each copy of the attacked software different. However, existing diversity techniques do not offer sufficient levels of protection. The invention provides an effective diversity solution by applying tamper resistant software (TRS) encoding techniques, to the communications that take place between software components, with corresponding changes to the code handling those communications. These communications may include, for example, data passed between software routines via parameters or mutually accessible variables, light-weight messages, signals and semaphores passed between threads, and messages passed between software processes. Effective TRS encoding techniques include data-flow encoding and mass-data encoding techniques.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.