Detection of unexpected server operation through physical attribute monitoring

摘要

Technologies are generally presented for identifying inconsistent usage of computing devices in a multiple computing device environment. When software or hardware are compromised or faulty, the results of self-monitoring may be unreliable for determining inconsistent usage arising from a security breach, a hardware fault, or a software error. Computing devices may be independently monitored for physical attributes, such as temperature, vibration, emitted noise, etc., and such attributes may be compared to expected values based on computing load, network load, or the like. When the monitored and expected physical attribute values differ or conflict, possible inconsistent usage may be identified so that appropriate measures may be taken to rectify the situation.

主权项

1. A method to identify inconsistent use of a computing device, the method comprising:
determining an expected value for a physical attribute by a processor of the computing device through a process that polls one or more hardware functions and one or more software functions of the computing device based on an operational mode of the computing device; polling an activity of the computing device to determine the expected value if the computing device is presently assigned no operations, wherein the activity includes one or more of a network activity and a hard drive activity of the computing device; monitoring the physical attribute of the computing device to detect a present value of the physical attribute through a mobile device that includes a portion of one or more sensors configured to detect the present value and a communication module configured to communicate with another portion of the one or more sensors integrated on the computing device in a multiple computing device environment; determining a difference between the detected present value and the expected value, the difference being larger than a tolerance value, wherein the tolerance value is based on one or more of a type of the physical attribute and a detection accuracy of the one or more sensors; and utilizing the processor of the computing device to identify the computing device as being in an inconsistent use mode.