Cloud-assisted method and service for application security verification

A client computing device for verifying the security of a browser-based application, the client computing device comprising:

• an application security module to (i) determine whether the client computing device has requested the browser-based application from a source and (ii) in response to determining that the browser-based application has been requested from the source, transmit an application verification request to a cloud server, different from the source, to verify the security of the browser-based application;
• a communication module to receive a security recommendation from the cloud server, wherein the security recommendation is based on prior feedback from one or more client computing devices indicative of browser-based application security information;
• wherein the application security module is further to download the browser-based application from the source in response to the security recommendation indicating that the browser-based application is secure;
• and
• a local code analysis module to perform a local security analysis of the browser-based application on the client computing device;
• wherein the application security module is further to (i) perform a security action based on the security recommendation of the cloud server and the local security analysis in response to the security recommendation or the local security analysis indicating that the browser-based application is unsecure and (ii) transmit feedback to the cloud server, wherein the feedback is indicative of results of the local security analysis.

One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to being executed, result in a computing device:

• receiving a browser-based application and application source data that identifies a source of the browser-based application;
• retrieving source authentication data and application validation data from a local database of the computing device, wherein the local database includes prior feedback from one or more client computing devices indicative of browser-based application security information;
• authenticating the source as a function of the application source data and the source authentication data;
• verifying the security of the browser-based application as a function of the application validation data;
• generating a security recommendation as a function of authentication of the source, verification of the browser-based application, and the prior feedback;
• transmitting the security recommendation to a remote computing device;
• receiving feedback from the remote computing device in response to transmitting the security recommendation, the feedback indicating results of a local security analysis of the browser-based application performed by the client computing device and an action taken by the remote computing device in response to receiving the security recommendation;
• and
• updating the local database based on the feedback received from the remote computing device.