Abstract:
An event handling system to schedule and translate semantic deductions form Intelligent Agents and sensors into events capable of being made observable by a Recipient system such as monitor that provides a particular view of virtual objects and events is disclosed. The event handling system also encapsulates the system's notion of time. In fact, a human observer can shift the system along the temporal axis (up to the present) in order to replay events, or undertake analyses as a result of speeded-up or slowed-down notions of system time. The event handling system receives events from Clients/Sources via connections through the event handling system Input Portals, and uses Shared Memory as its form of inter-process communication with the Monitors. The event handling system makes events available for a recipient observation sub-system to read and provide their particular view. There can be many Clients and Recipient systems connected to the event handling system at the same time.
Abstract:
The disclosure of the current invention describes a method of handling a message or a document to be released external of a secure computer environment. The message or the document is first directed to a trusted sealing device which displays the message or the document to a human user for visual checking. If the message or document is acceptable to the human user, the method associates the message or the document with a seal produced by the trusted sealing device. The message or the document is then directed along with the associated seal to a gateway which deletes portions of the header and checks the validity of the associated seal. If, as a result of this verification, it is determined that the associated seal is validly associated with the message or the document, the method attaches predetermined header portions to the message or document and communicates the message or the document from the secure computer environment.
Abstract:
Geo View is a three-dimensional virtual universe in which a real-world or virtual object may be represented by one or more virtual objects whose attributes are derived from attributes of the real-world object via a flexible user-specifiable mapping. Typically a two-dimensional plane located in three-dimensional space is used to visualize the universe of interest. The placement of virtual objects in the universe typically having a shape is governed by the absolute or relative geographical location of the real-world objects, and also by a flexible set of user-specified layout rules. In addition to the visualisation of various objects, the human observer can attach sounds to objects. The representation of real-world objects with rapidly time-changing attributes may be simplified by the use of Synthetic Strobes, flexible user-specified filters which shift changes in the visual attributes of a shape from one time-domain to another.
Abstract:
An observation paradigm that works with a collection of the abovementioned elements, to provide a way of observing information infrastructures and data movement in a chosen time frame. The user (human observer) is provided sophisticated controls and interaction mechanisms that will make it easier for them to detect computer network intrusion and critical security management events in real time as well as allow them to better analyze past events. Embodiments may include various combinations of a framework for “intelligent agents”; an event handling system and a high-performance multi-layer observation facility presenting the user with a semantically dense depiction of an information source under consideration, such as a computer network.
Abstract:
An observation sub-system is described wherein in three-dimensional (3D) views of objects and their interactions over time are provided. Each different view is based on a fundamental visualization paradigm. Heavily interacting objects can be depicted as being located “close together”. Rules are created so as to define the position of objects not only from the perspective of whether interaction occurred, but also the amount of interaction, and the rate of interaction. Despite using proximity to show whether an object is interacting with another, further visual mechanisms are used for the user to be able to analyze the type of data interaction, and the current state of affairs of interaction within a specified time slice. There are two types of forces acting on objects in the data view universe, gravitational (as a result of the mass of an object) and electrostatic (as a result of the charge on an object).
Abstract:
A trusted path device is described which may be used stand alone or may be retrofitted to a users untrusted computer console or workstation so that an untrusted data input may be displayed on an untrusted display and verified by the user, following which the trusted data can be output to an untrusted or trusted device or network. The output may be encrypted or not, by means of an encryption device which may or may not use a ‘one time pad’ key provided from a structured array of retrievable “one time pad” keys having associated uniquely there with, a serial number which itself need not be encrypted but with which the input data and encrypted output data are uniquely associated. Sufficient “one time pad” keys are provided on a commonly available and physically manageable medium so as to allow much simplified key management procedures while still maintaining high levels of correctness and effectiveness of the encryption processes. Trusted devices as per ITSEC Level 6 may be used to implement the trusted path and encryption devices since the apparatus according to the invention are inherently simple in functionality thereby simplifying conformance with the relevant ITSEC and security equivalent requirements.
Abstract:
A method and means to control the degree to which the presence of covert information may be reduced, eliminated or corrupted in documents created on a computer device (particularly complex documents) before the document is transmitted outside a secure environment in which the document is created. The process of handling a document in a secure environment comprises the preferred step of displaying the document or a predetermined portion thereof in a manner which conforms to the rule that no pixel of the display is written to more than once for the current portion of the document being displayed. Preferably the method includes the steps of creating a document, transforming the document into an intermediate form by defining the content and structure of the document using a predetermined set of document describers, applying the intermediate form of the document to at least one filter adapted to eliminate or corrupt the content and form of any covert information contained within the intermediate form of the document followed by the previously described step of displaying the document in the manner described above.
Abstract:
A secure computer architecture having a central processing unit, zero or more memories, at least one input, at least one output and a bus to communicate signals between the components which are all untrusted elements. The computer architecture also includes a trusted access monitor device, a trusted gateway device located between each of the memories, a further trusted gateway device located between each of the inputs and the bus, and a further trusted gateway device located between each of the outputs and the bus, where the access monitor device controls either the one-way or two-way direction of the signals through a respective gateway device. In one aspect of the invention each memory location is each of the zero or more memories, and each input and each output has a respective tag which is representative of a security related attribute associated with the data in that memory location or that input or that output. The trusted access monitor contains tags which are representative of other security attributes of the processes that can be processed by the central processing unit, whereby when the central processing unit attempts to perform an access to data in a memory location or an input operation using the input or an output operation using the output, the access monitor compares the respective tags and controls either the one-way or two-way direction of the signals through a respective gateway device. The architecture disclosed can be adapted to fit within a device which connects to a peripheral input/output port of an untrusted computer device.
Abstract:
An information flow control means for location between a first and second computer network where the first network has a higher security classification than the second network. The information flow control means comprises an information switch having an information input, a first output connected to the first network, a second output connected to the second network, a controller having at least two states, a first state controlling the information switch to connect the input to the first output and a second state controlling the information switch to connect the input to the second output, and an information diode having an input for receiving information from the second network and an output for transferring information received from the second network to the first network through a connection from the information diode output to the first network and which prevents information flowing from the output to the input.
Abstract:
An event handling system to schedule and translate semantic deductions form Intelligent Agents and sensors into events capable of being made observable by a Recipient system such as monitor that provides a particular view of virtual objects and events is disclosed. The event handling system also encapsulates the system's notion of time. In fact, a human observer can shift the system along the temporal axis (up to the present) in order to replay events, or undertake analyses as a result of speeded-up or slowed-down notions of system time. The event handling system receives events from Clients/Sources via connections through the event handling system Input Portals, and uses Shared Memory as its form of inter-process communication with the Monitors. The event handling system makes events available for a recipient observation sub-system to read and provide their particular view. There can be many Clients and Recipient systems connected to the event handling system at the same time.