Patent ID: 11882158
Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A network edge device, comprising:
a processing system including a processor at a proximal edge of a wide-area network; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving, over a mobile communication network, an authentication request from a user device for performing a function utilizing a first authentication method, wherein the authentication request identifies the function and the first authentication method;
obtaining network intelligence data, the network intelligence data including: historical data of other network devices accessing services via the wide-area network and over the mobile communication network, an identification of events occurring in the mobile communication network, time of day data associated with a plurality of user devices accessing the services, and trending data associated with the plurality of user devices accessing the services on the mobile communication network;
analyzing a security behavior of the network edge device;
identifying a security risk level for each of a plurality of authentication methods resulting in a plurality of security risk levels using a machine learning application configured to apply pattern matching and analysis to the network intelligence data, wherein the first authentication method is one of the plurality of authentication methods, wherein the identifying of the security risk level for each of the plurality of authentication methods is based on an analysis of network element security behaviors for the other network devices, the network element security behaviors being identified based on user plane messages and control plane messages in the mobile communication network that indicate a security breach or a security risk;
identifying a first security risk level of the plurality of security risk levels associated with the first authentication method, based on the security behavior of the network edge device and the network intelligence data for the other network devices;
identifying a second security risk level of the plurality of security risk levels associated with the function;
determining the first security risk level associated with the first authentication method corresponds to a higher risk than the second security risk level associated with the function; and
responsive to the determining:
identifying a second authentication method from the plurality of authentication methods that is associated with the second security risk level;
notifying the user device of the second security risk level for the function; and
providing a recommendation to the user device to utilize the second authentication method to perform the function.