Patent ID: 8544071

Claim:
An apparatus to manage service account security, the apparatus comprising: a processor; a storage device having machine-readable instructions contained therein which when executed cause the processor to provide the following: a security record data store containing information regarding a plurality of security records for a number of service accounts, wherein each of the plurality of security records comprises at least update information regarding an updating of the number of service account passwords and a user identification of a service account owner for each of the number of service accounts, wherein the update information includes a date for a password change corresponding to each of the plurality of service records; a retrieval module coupled to the security record data store, the retrieval module to request and receive security record information and the update information for the number of service accounts; a user interface module coupled to the retrieval module, the user interface module to receive requests for the security record information from one or more users and to convey the security record information to the one or more users, wherein the one or more users include the owner for each of the number of service accounts, a service account manager that manages the number of service accounts, and an executive of the number of service accounts that provides oversight to the service account manager; a notification module coupled to the retrieval module, the notification module to periodically request the update information from the security record data store for each of the number of security records, the notification module to send a notification to the owner of the service account that the password requires updating, wherein the notifications escalate such that the executive of a particular service account is additionally notified of the date of the password change for a corresponding security record of the particular service account when a current date is within a predetermined threshold of the date of the password change; a verification module to use a one-way hashing algorithm to verify whether a password has been updated in a password repository prior to the date of the password change without verifying the password itself; and a confirmation module to send a confirmation message to the service account owner related to the password updated in the password repository.