Guest account management using cloud based security services

摘要

Guest accounts arise in a variety of ways. Hotels, Coffee Shops, internet cafes, internet kiosks, etc provide internet access to its guests, aka customers. Cloud based security services can serve as a platform for supporting efficient and safe guest account management. Guest accounts are managed by the cloud service and are associated and disassociated with individuals as needed by the guest account provider. The cloud service can also provide a guest account provider with greater control over guest account usage and accountability.

主权项

1. A guest account management method implemented on one or more cloud service computers, comprising the steps of:
A) receiving at a cloud service computer a guest account request for a user of an external system, wherein the cloud service computer is part of a cloud based security system located externally from the external system on which the user is requesting access with the guest account request, wherein the external system comprises no on-premises security appliances for providing guest account management and access, and wherein the cloud service computer is communicatively coupled to the external system via the Internet; B) associating a first guest account with information identifying the user; C) generating initial credential for the first guest account; D) transmitting the initial credentials to an output device from which the user can receive the initial credential; E) logging-in the first guest account upon receipt of the initial credentials from a client device; F) receiving a service request from the client device, wherein the client device connects to the cloud service computer for all requests comprising the service request over the Internet via a tunnel, a transparent proxy, a forward proxy, or redirection, and wherein the request are relayed to the Internet responsive to the logging-in; G) servicing the service request; H) inspecting results of servicing the service request or the received service request for compliance with one or more service policies associated with the first guest account, wherein the one or more service policies comprise usage restrictions and content restrictions; I) forwarding the results to the client device; and J) adding information regarding the service request to an activity log associated with the user.