Patent Issued for Digital Safety And Account Discovery (USPTO 10,320,821)

2019 JUN 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Park, Jason D. (Chicago, IL); Parkinson, John S. (Lake Forest, IL), filed on September 22, 2017, was published online on June 24, 2019.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,320,821, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Protecting confidential information in today’s online environment is difficult due to the increased connectivity and the increased number of consumer accounts accessible via web enabled computing devices. Consumers today have a large number of online subscriptions and keeping track of all of them is difficult and time consuming. Many consumers have subscriptions and financial accounts that they have long forgotten about but those subscriptions and financial accounts may still be active and accessible online. It is important from a digital safety perspective that consumer be aware of all of their online accounts and be diligent in closing unused or no longer wanted subscriptions.

“Further, as consumers continue to gain an ever-increasing presence in online environments, there will be an ever-present need to better protect consumers from confidential information being breached (e.g., made available publicly) in order to protect consumers from fraud and/or other harms.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing methods, computer readable storage media, software, systems, and apparatuses for use by a consumer in order to keep track of a consumer’s accounts and to prevent unauthorized access or use of the consumers identified subscriptions and financial accounts. The discovered subscriptions and financial accounts may be listed and displayed to the consumer along with recommendations and assistance for closing any discovered unused or unwanted financial accounts and subscriptions. The described cyber-security system may prevent unauthorized access, use, and security breaches by unauthorized users and devices of the consumer’s accounts.

“In some aspects, the cyber-security system may include a cyber-security account analysis system and a cyber-security data processing system. The cyber-security system may include at least one processor and a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions. The cyber-security system may be configured to, in operation, generate a consumer profile based on consumer information, scan a consumer device to determine potential security threat, and associate the consumer device and the results of the scan with the generated consumer profile. The cyber-security system may also be configured to, in operation, monitor at least one email account of the consumer. The cyber security system may be configured to, in operation, determine source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account. Based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, the cyber-security system may generate a list of financial institutions and other businesses associated with the consumer. The cyber-security system may, in operation, also determine for each email correspondence a likelihood that each email correspondence represents an account of the consumer. Based on the determined likelihood that each email correspondence represents a subscription of the consumer, the cyber-security system may generate a list of accounts associated with the consumer.

“In other aspects, the cyber-security system may also be configured to, in operation, monitor at least a consumer’s internet browser history and internet browser cache in addition to a consumer’s email accounts. The cyber security system may be configured to, in operation, generate a list of financial institutions and other businesses associated with the consumer based on a consumer’s internet browser history and internet browser cache. Using the various lists of financial institutions and other businesses created from the analysis of a consumer’s email, browser history, and browser cache, the cyber-security system may, in operation, also determine the likelihood whether a consumer has an account to the various financial institutions and other businesses.

“The cyber-security system may, in operation, recommend closing accounts associated with the consumer based on security recommendations. The cyber-security system may also, in operation, assist or automate closing of any selected accounts. The cyber-security system may also in operation, assist or automate updating personal information contained within any of the selected accounts, such as updating a consumer’s address after a move across all of the consumer’s selected accounts.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A cyber-security system comprising a cyber-security account analysis system and a cyber-security data processing system, wherein the cyber-security system includes: a processor; a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the cyber-security data processing system to: generate a consumer profile based on consumer information; scan a consumer device to determine potential software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; generate a list of hardware elements and software applications discovered during the scan of the consumer device; associate the consumer device and the results of the scan with the generated consumer profile; generate recommendations based on the determined software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; display recommendations to a consumer; wherein the cyber-security account analysis system is configured to: monitor at least one email account of the consumer; determine source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account of the consumer; based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, generate a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; monitor a consumer’s web browsing history information; analyze the consumer’s web browsing history information to determine a group of businesses associated with the consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web browsing history information, generate a separate list of businesses associated with a consumer; monitor a consumer’s web cache; analyze the consumer’s web cache to determine a group of businesses associated with a consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web cache, generate a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; determine for each business associated with a consumer a likelihood that the consumer has an account with a business; based on the determined likelihood that each business represents an account of the consumer, generate a list of accounts associated with the consumer; and initiate the closing of certain accounts associated with the consumer based on security recommendations, the certain accounts associated with the consumer determined based on at least one of the generated separate lists of businesses associated with the consumer, and the generated list of the accounts associated with the consumer.

“2. The cyber-security system of claim 1, wherein the cyber-security account analysis system is further configured to: identify high risk accounts based on the security recommendations.

“3. The cyber-security system of claim 1, wherein the cyber-security data analysis system is further configured to: determine a digital safety score based on the generated consumer profile, the generated separate lists of businesses associated with the consumer, and the generated list of accounts associated with the consumer.

“4. The cyber-security system of claim 3, wherein the cyber-security data processing system is further configured to: receive additional consumer information; update the generated consumer profile; and update the determined digital safety score based on the updated consumer profile.

“5. The cyber-security system of claim 1, wherein the cyber-security data analysis system is further configured to: determine whether an account of the consumer has been breached; and determine whether the breach has affected other accounts of the consumer.

“6. The cyber-security system of claim 1, wherein the cyber-security data analysis system is further configured to determine a frequency the consumer accesses each account associated with the consumer.

“7. A method comprising: monitoring at least one email account of a consumer; determining source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account of the consumer; based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, generating a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; monitoring a consumer’s web browsing history information; analyzing the consumer’s web browsing history information to determine a group of businesses associated with the consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web browsing history information, generating a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; monitoring a consumer’s web cache; analyzing the consumer’s web cache to determine a group of businesses associated with the consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web cache, generating a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; determining for each business associated with a consumer a likelihood that the consumer has an account with a business; based on the determined likelihood that each business represents an account of the consumer, generating a list of accounts associated with the consumer; scanning a consumer device to determine potential software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; generating a list of hardware elements and software applications discovered during the scan of the consumer device; generating recommendations based on the determined software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; and initiating the closing of certain accounts associated with consumer based on security recommendations, the certain accounts associated with the consumer determined based on at least one of the generated separate list of businesses associated with the consumer and the generated list of the accounts associated with the consumer.

“8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: identifying high risk accounts based on the security recommendations.

“9. The method of claim 7, further comprising: determining a digital safety score based on the generated separate list of businesses associated with the consumer, and the generated list of accounts associated with the consumer.

“10. The method of claim 7, further comprising: determining whether an account of the consumer has been breached; and determining whether the breach has affected other accounts of the consumer.

“11. The method of claim 7, further comprising: determining a frequency the consumer accesses each account associated with a consumer.

“12. A cyber-security system comprising a cyber-security account analysis system and a cyber-security data processing system, wherein the cyber-security system includes: a processor; a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the cyber-security data processing system to: generate a consumer profile based on consumer information; scan a consumer device to determine potential software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; generate a list of hardware elements and software applications discovered during the scan of the consumer device; associate the consumer device and the results of the scan with the generated consumer profile; generate recommendations based on the determined software application threats and hardware element vulnerabilities; display recommendations to a consumer; wherein the cyber-security account analysis system is configured to: monitor at least one email account of the consumer; determine source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account; based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, generate a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; monitor a consumer’s web browsing history information; analyze the consumer’s web browsing history information to determine a group of businesses associated with the consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web browsing history information, generate a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; monitor a consumer’s web cache; analyze the consumer’s web cache to determine a group of businesses associated with the consumer; based on the analysis of the consumer’s web cache, generate a separate list of businesses associated with the consumer; determine for each business associated with consumer a likelihood the consumer has an account with a business; based on the determined likelihood that each business represents an account of the consumer, generate a list of accounts associated with the consumer; and initiate the closing of certain accounts associated with the consumer based on security recommendations, the certain accounts associated with the consumer determined based on at least one of the generated separate list of businesses associated with the consumer and the generated list of the accounts associated with the consumer.

“13. The cyber-security system of claim 12, wherein security recommendations comprise a number of consecutive days of account inactivity.

“14. The cyber-security system of claim 12, wherein cyber-security account analysis system is further configured to: display a hyperlink for each listed account to enable the consumer to close an account upon hyperlink activation.

“15. The cyber-security system of claim 12, wherein the cyber-security account analysis system is further configured to: identify high risk accounts based on the security recommendations.

“16. The cyber-security system of claim 12, wherein the cyber-security data processing system is further configured to: determine a digital safety score based on the generated consumer profile, the generated separate list of businesses associated with the consumer, and the generated list of accounts associated with the consumer.

“17. The cyber-security system of claim 12, wherein the cyber-security data processing system is further configured to: receive additional consumer information; update the generated consumer profile; and update the determined digital safety score based on the updated consumer profile.”

For more information, see this patent: Park, Jason D.; Parkinson, John S. Digital Safety And Account Discovery. U.S. Patent Number 10,320,821, filed September 22, 2017, and published online on June 24, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,320,821.PN.&OS=PN/10,320,821RS=PN/10,320,821

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