US 2025/0028766 A1Published application

Discovering contacts and inferring ownership of external-facing assets

AssigneePalo Alto Networks, Inc.

InventorsPamela Lynn Toman, Andrew Clayton Scott, Johnathan Daniel Wilkes, Aaron Mark Isaksen, Matthew Stephen Kraning, Gregory David Heon

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Abstract

A data-driven, unsupervised system (“owner inference module”) has been created that collects information from different data sources and infers ownership of an asset by discerning signals conveying ownership and using them to identify likely owners of assets. The owner inference module creates a graph of direct and indirect relationships among the asset and entities based on the collected information (i.e., the data and metadata). The owner inference module processes the graph and accounts for the varying strengths of different ownership signals based on any one or more of observations, expert knowledge, and preferences. The owner inference module quantifies the different signals of ownership of an entity and aggregates these values into an ownership likelihood score.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

submitting a first set of one or more queries to a first set of one or more systems for information about an asset which is Internet-facing;
analyzing responses to the first set of queries to identify a first set of entities having direct relationships with the asset and constructing a graph of the direct relationships with indications of properties of the direct relationships based, at least in part, on the first set of queries and the responses to the first set of queries;
for each entity of a first subset of the first set of entities that is not an individual contact,
submitting a second set of one or more queries to a second set of one or more systems for information about the entity, wherein the first and second set of systems can overlap or be the same;
and
analyzing responses to the second set of queries to identify a second set of one or more entities having indirect relationships with the asset via the entity;
and
updating the graph to indicate the indirect relationships and properties of the indirect relationships based on the second set of queries and the responses to the second set of queries;
for each of the identified entities that is a contact, scoring likelihood of ownership of the asset based, at least in part, on values of the properties of the one or more relationships the contact has with the asset;
and
indicating a set of the contacts as likely owners of the asset based, at least in part, on the scoring.

8 more elements

A non-transitory, machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon, the program code comprising instructions to:

determine data sources to query for an external-facing asset of an organization;
query the data sources about the asset and analyze responses to identify entities related to the external-facing asset up to a defined distance limit and to determine properties of the relationships;
for each of the identified entities that is a contact,
analyze properties of the one or more relationships the contact has with the external-facing asset to determine values of the properties;
quantify likelihood of ownership based on an aggregate of the values of the properties;
and
indicate as likely owners of the external-facing asset a set of the contacts based, at least in part, on quantified likelihood of ownership.

4 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

a processor;
and
a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to,
determine data sources to query for an external-facing asset of an organization;
query the data sources about the asset and analyze responses to identify entities related to the external-facing asset up to a defined distance limit and to determine properties of the relationships;
for each of the identified entities that is a contact,
analyze properties of the one or more relationships the contact has with the external-facing asset to determine values of the properties;
quantify likelihood of ownership based on an aggregate of the values of the properties;
and
indicate as likely owners of the external-facing asset a set of the contacts based, at least in part, on quantified likelihood of ownership.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.