US 7,698,442 B1Granted

Server-based universal resource locator verification service

AssigneeVoltage Security, Inc.

InventorsSathvik Krishnamurthy, Matthew J. Pauker, Guido Appenzeller, Terence Spies, David S. Thompson, Lucas C. Ryan

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A URL verification service is provided that is used to evaluate the trustworthiness of universal resource locators (URLs). As a user browses the world wide web, a URL verification client captures a URL associated with a web page of unknown authenticity. The URL verification client transmits the captured URL to a URL verification server. The URL verification server compares the URL to actively maintained whitelist and blacklist information. The server also uses the URL and a user-supplied or automatically-extracted brand to query a search engine. The URL verification server processes the response of the search engine to the search engine queries and the results of cache and whitelist and blacklist comparisons to determine whether the captured URL is legitimately associated with the brand. The results of the URL evaluation process are transmitted from the URL verification server to the URL verification client, which notifies user.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for determining whether or not certain web page universal resource locators (URLs) are associated with trusted or fraudulent web sites, wherein a user browses to a plurality of web pages on the world wide web of unknown authenticity using computing equipment, wherein at least some of the web pages to which the user browses are associated with trusted web sites, and wherein at least some of the web pages to which the user browses are associated with fraudulent web sites, the method comprising:

as the user browses the world wide web using the computing equipment, obtaining URLs for the web pages of unknown authenticity including URLs for the web pages that are associated with the trusted web sites and URLs for the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites using a URL verification client at the computing equipment;
transmitting the URLs from the URL verification client to a URL verification server over a communications network, wherein the URLs that are transmitted include the URLs for the web pages that are associated with the trusted web sites and the URLs for the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites;
at the URL verification server, obtaining a plurality of proposed brands each of which is associated with a respective one of the URLs, wherein each of the URLs includes a second level domain and wherein the proposed brands for the URLs for the web pages associated with the fraudulent web sites do not include any of the second level domains;
and
at the URL verification server, evaluating the URLs for the web pages of unknown authenticity including the web pages that are associated with the trusted web sites and the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites using the proposed brands and the URLs to determine for each URL whether the proposed brand is legitimately associated with that URL.

2 more elements

as the user browses the world wide web using the computing equipment, obtaining user-supplied brands from the user and capturing URLs for web pages of unknown authenticity including user-supplied brands and URLs for the web pages that are associated with the trusted web sites and user-supplied brands and URLs for the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites using a URL verification client at the computing equipment of the user;
transmitting the captured URLs and the user-supplied brands from the URL verification client to a URL verification server over the internet, wherein the URLs and the user-supplied brands that are transmitted include the user-supplied brands and the URLs for the web pages that are associated with the trusted web sites and the user-supplied brands and the URLs for the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites;
at the URL verification server, receiving the transmitted URLs and the user-supplied brands from the URL verification client;
at the URL verification server, using an actively-maintained whitelist to evaluate the URLs to determine whether the URLs are trusted, wherein each of the URLs includes a second level domain and wherein the user-supplied brands for the web pages that are associated with the fraudulent web sites do not include any of the second level domains;
transmitting results of the URL evaluation performed at the URL verification server from the URL verification server to the URL verification client over the internet;
and
at the URL verification client, displaying messages for the user in response to the results transmitted from the URL verification server.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/072,069Filed 3 Mar 2005
Granted: 13 Apr 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G06F 21/51
Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems: at application…
H04L 63/1483
Countermeasures against malicious traffic: service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing
G06F 2221/2119
Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/00 and subgroups addressing additional information or applications relating to security arrangements for…:…
G06F
Computing and data processing