Patent ID: 8307099
Filing Date: 2012-11-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for a network-accessible electronic information service to automatically determine whether a communication received from a copy of a software application is suspect based on information about the software application copy, the method comprising: receiving a communication from a copy of a software application, the communication being related to user access to information available from the electronic information service; automatically obtaining information specific to the software application copy from metadata associated with the received communication, the obtained information including a value for each of at least one parameter related to operation of the software application copy; automatically generating a fingerprint identifier to represent the software application copy based at least in part on the at least one parameter value included in the obtained information, the generating being automatically performed by at least one of one or more configured computing systems; automatically determining whether the generated fingerprint identifier matches any fingerprint identifiers for software application copies that previously sent one or more inappropriate communications, the automatic determining being performed by the at least one configured computing system and including comparing the generated fingerprint identifier to each of one or more previously generated stored fingerprint identifiers for one or more other software application copies that previously sent one or more inappropriate communications in order to determine whether a degree of match between two fingerprint identifiers being compared exceeds a determined similarity threshold; and if the generated fingerprint identifier is determined to match one of the one or more previously generated stored fingerprint identifiers by having a degree of match to that one previously generated stored fingerprint identifier that exceeds the determined similarity threshold,